The fifth SpaceX rocket launch of 2025 Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred days before the firm’s attorneys are set to respond to efforts to dismiss its federal lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission.

The Falcon 9 rocket loudly blasted off at 3:02 p.m. Saturday into cloudy skies and placed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit, SpaceX confirmed an hour later.

Eight minutes later the first-stage booster, completing its 17th flight, returned to land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific Ocean.

Liftoff occurred six days before SpaceX attorneys are due to file a response to the California Coastal Commission’s motion asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the state agency. 

SpaceX filed the lawsuit in October after the state agency’s members voted 6-4 to decline to bless a request from the military for Falcon flights to climb from 36 to 50 launches a year at Vandenberg. 

In addition to airing environmental concerns, Coastal Commissioners also spoke out against SpaceX’s Elon Musk and his political activities.

“Rarely has a government agency made so clear that it was exceeding its authorized mandate to punish a company for the personal political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO,” the first amended complaint filed in November says.

“Second, the Commission is trying to unlawfully regulate space launch programs—which are critical to national security and other national policy objectives—at Vandenberg Space Force Base (the Base), a federal enclave and the world’s second busiest spaceport.”

Despite the state panel’s vote, SpaceX conducted 46 Falcon launches from Vandenberg in 2024. The base also saw five other launches involving different rockets and missiles.

Defense Department leaders and the state agency remain divided on whether to treat SpaceX launches as private or military activities. As a private operation, the state panel contends, it would have to obtain a Coastal Development Permit. 

Instead of the permit, activities at Vandenberg typically go to the state panel for a determination of whether the project is consistent with California’s coastal policies.

The SpaceX complaint asks for federal judge’s ruling that the state permit shouldn’t be required and that Falcon launches at Vandenberg are federally permitted activities. The firm also asked for compensatory and punitive damages plus attorney’s fees. 

In January, attorneys for the Coastal Commission filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

“SpaceX fails to allege an injury-in-fact from the Commission’s objection to the Air Force’s consistency determination—an objection that the Air Force chose to disregard, as federal law allows it to do,” the state motion said. 

“Additionally, any potential future requirement for a consistency certification is speculative and contingent on approvals by the federal government that SpaceX has not and cannot allege have occurred. Any potential requirement for a state coastal development permit is speculative as well. 

“For these and other reasons below, SpaceX’s lawsuit should be dismissed.”

The lawsuit names individual commissioners including Meagan Harmon, who did not participate in the discussion or vote due to a relative working for a different launch firm. Harmon also serves on the Santa Barbara City Council.

Both sides are expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles for a March 14 hearing before Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. for a possible ruling on the motion to dismiss.

SpaceX plans to add a second pad — Space Launch Complex-6 — for Falcon missions at Vandenberg and eventually conduct up to 100 liftoffs a year from the West Coast.

Additionally, lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed at limiting the Coastal Commission.