SpaceX conducts the first of two planned rocket launches from the Central Coast this week

KCLU | By Lance Orozco

Published August 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM PDT

A white rocket streaks upward into a blue sky. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday morning. Its payload was 24 communications satellites.

A Falcon 9 rocket carried 24 communications satellites into orbit from Santa Barbara County Monday morning.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Central Coast Monday morning, carrying 24 communications satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The reusable first stage booster landed on a barge off the West Coast after the 9:26 a.m. launch.

The company is already gearing up for its next Santa Barbara County mission. Plans call for another 24 communications satellites to be launched during a four-hour launch window that opens at 8:44 a.m. Friday.

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Lance Orozco

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.

See stories by Lance Orozco