As the month of March winds down,
SpaceX hopes to squeeze in one more launch from
California with a batch of 22 of its Starlink satellites on board. Liftoff of the Starlink 7-18 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base is set for 7:30 p.m. PT (10:30 p.m. ET, 0230 UTC). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff. This will be the 15th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX fleet. It previously launched two SmallSat Transporter rideshare mission, a pair of missions for the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA’s ocean-observing SWOT payload among others. Following liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), B1071 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ a little more than eight minutes into flight. This will mark the 87th landing on OCISLY and the 289th booster landing to date. SpaceX will deploy the Starlink satellites about an hour after launch from the Golden State. This mission will be the 20th Starlink flight in 2024 and boosts SpaceX to more than 6,100 Starlinks launched to date. According to astronomer and expert tracker, Jonathan McDowell, there are currently 5,680 Starlink satellites currently on orbit.