After a two-week lull in launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Tuesday evening and continued to add to the Starlink constellation designed to expand service to very remote areas.

The two-stage rocket built by SpaceX lifted off at 7:05 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 on the South Base. The prior launch from the West Coast occurred June 28.

On Tuesday, the first-stage booster returned to the droneship to land approximately eight minutes after launch.

An hour after liftoff, the 26 Starlink satellites deployed as planned, according to SpaceX.

The firm designed and manufactured Starlink satellites to provide high-speed internet around the world, including areas where land-based access remained unreliable and inaccessible.

“Over the past year, Starlink has expanded to 42 new countries, territories and other markets around the world while growing by 2.7 million+ active customers globally and serving more than 6 million and counting with high-speed, low-latency internet,” Starlink said. 

“During that time, the SpaceX team has also launched more than 100 Starlink missions, adding 2,300+ satellites to the constellation, and invested heavily in our ground infrastructure, network backbone, and internal technologies and systems.”

The added satellites in orbit mean Starlink can provide download speeds of 100s of megabytes per second to individual customers.

In the United States alone, the median download speed across more than 2 million active Starlink customers during times of peak demand is nearly 200 Mbps as of this month, according to the update. 

“Starlink’s speed and latency have radically improved over the past year. With an unprecedented level of growth, and more than 6 million active customers and counting globally, the network serves exponentially more users,” the company said. 

The constellation now has more than 7,800 satellites in orbit, so users typically have  multiple craft in view and other equipment to ensure reliable service. 

“As a result, Starlink customers benefit from continuous service even when terrestrial broadband is suffering from fiber cuts, subsea cable damage, and power outages that can deny service to millions of individuals for days,” according to the company.

Further growth is expected, including for Alaska and remote areas near the North and South poles. 

“We plan to launch more than 400 additional satellites to the polar inclination by the end of 2025 alone, which will more than double the capacity for Alaskan customers alone, as well as other high latitude locations. The first of these additional satellites have begun to serve Alaskan users already, nearly doubling median peak-hour download speeds over the past month,” the company said. 

Starlink already has taken steps toward debuting its third-generation satellites aboard launches aiming for the first half of 2026. The new generation of Starlink spacecraft will deliver more than 10 times the downlink and 24 times the uplink capacity of the second-generation satellites, Starlink’s update said.

Tuesday’s mission marked the 20th Falcon flight from the West Coast in 2025, and the 28th including government and other customers’ payloads.