SpaceX is getting ready to launch a mixture of 21 Starlink and two Starshield satellites on Saturday night time from Vandenberg Area Drive Base.
Starshield is an alternate model of the Starlink satellite tv for pc structure the federal government. SpaceX hasn’t introduced which U.S. authorities company ordered these two satellites or if they’re for a overseas authorities.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 17-43 mission from Area Launch Advanced 4 East is scheduled for 9:24:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 6 (12:24:30 a.m. EDT / 0424:30 UTC on Sunday, June 7).
Spaceflight Now may have reside protection starting about half-hour previous to liftoff.
SpaceX will fly the mission utilizing the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1097. This will probably be its tenth flight after launching NROL-172, the Twilight rideshare, and 7 batches of Starlink satellites.
Just a little greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1097 will goal a touchdown on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You.’ If profitable, this would be the 201st touchdown on this vessel and the 620th booster touchdown so far.
Whereas by no means publicly declared by the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, the 13 launches supporting its “multi-phenomenology proliferated structure” satellite tv for pc constellation are believed to encompass Starshield satellites. In April 2024, Reuters reported that Northrop Grumman “is offering sensors for a number of the SpaceX satellites.”
In 2025, SpaceX launched two missions, Starlink 13-1 and Starlink 13-4, which reportedly included two Starshield satellites every as nicely, just like the upcoming Starlink 17-43 mission. These satellites, logged by the U.S. Area Drive as USA 485, 486, 549, and 550, have additionally not been publicly linked to a particular a part of the U.S. authorities.
