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Third launch in less than a week from Vandenberg Space Force Base

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday.
SpaceX
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday.

SpaceX sends 20 communications satellites into orbit Saturday.

It was a very busy week at Vandenberg Space Force Base, with the military facility conducting three launches in four days.

The Air Force test launched military intercontinental ballistic missiles from the base on Tuesday and Thursday morning.

Then, on Saturday SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg. Heavy fog obscured the launch in the region.

The 5:58 a.m. launch carried 20 small communications satellites into orbit. It was the 21st flight for the reusable first stage booster, which landed on a barge off the West Coast.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.