The West Coast’s fifth Falcon 9 rocket of August flew from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday night, continuing the busy year of launches. 

Filled with 24 Starlink satellites, SpaceX’s two-stage rocket blasted off at 9:59 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-4. 

About eight minutes later, the first-stage booster landed on the droneship positioned in the Pacific Ocean, wrapping up its 15th mission. 

The Starlink satellites were expected to separate from the rocket about an hour after the departure from Vandenberg.

Starlink representatives said the constellation is connecting more than 7 million people “with reliable high-speed internet across 150 countries, territories and many other markets.”

The system looks to deliver the service even if a customer’s view of the sky is less than ideal because of trees, buildings and other obstacles that can temporarily block the connection. 

“As we continue to improve our software systems and launch more satellites, Starlink becomes even more robust,” Starlink representatives said in a summer update. “With a denser satellite network, and increasingly advanced algorithms, our system has more paths to route around obstacles, making service more resilient, even in challenging environments.”

Starlink, designed and built by SpaceX, said the manifest calls for adding 400 satellites before the end of 2025 to help boost service in Alaska and polar regions. 

SpaceX has launched more than 9,500 satellites, although the number still in orbit stands at about 8,245, according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell’s detailed online tally. 

Spacecraft failures and retirements occurred as Starlink satellites have aged.

The SpaceX team at Vandenberg may conduct another launch as soon as Tuesday night, kicking off a new month of missions from the West Coast.