Liftoff occurred at 10:04 p.m. EDT on Sunday (Sept. 28)

 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the dusk sky over southern California on Sunday (Sept. 28) as it carried a new stack of 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

The first stage of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands on its landing legs and lit in silhouette atop a droneship on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The Falcon's first stage (Booster 1063), meanwhile, descended to a propulsive landing on its four deployed landing legs on "Of Course I Still Love You," a droneship positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 28th flight for this particular stage.

Quelle: SC

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB

Update Sept. 28, 101:15 p.m. EDT (1842 UTC): SpaceX confirmed deployment of the 28 Starlink satellites.

SpaceX completed its final, scheduled launch of September Sunday evening. The Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base was the 16th launch for SpaceX this month.

The Starlink 11-20 mission saw 28 of SpaceX’s broadband internet satellites deployed into low Earth orbit with deployment scheduled for a little more than an hour after liftoff.

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 7:04 p.m. PDT (10:04 p.m. EDT / 0204 UTC). The Falcon 9 rocket flew away from the pad on a south-easterly trajectory upon liftoff.

SpaceX used one of its most flown Falcon 9 boosters to launch this mission: B1063. The Starlink 11-20 mission was its 28th flight, following missions like NASA’s DART, Transporter-7 and Sentinel-6 Michael Frelich.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1063 landed on the SpaceX drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You. This was the 154th touch down for this vessel and the 513th booster landing to date.

The Starlink 11-20 mission was SpaceX’s 88th mission supporting its megaconstellation this year. Of those, 11 were launched this month.

SpaceX closes out the month of September with 16 orbital launches, which ties it for the most launches in a month with May. With the Starlink 11-20 mission in the books, SpaceX completed 124 Falcon 9 rocket launches so far this year. Here’s how they break down by month:

• January -13
• February – 12
• March – 11
• April – 14
• May – 16
• June – 15
• July – 13
• August – 14
• September – 16

Quelle: SN