{"id":109207,"date":"2025-08-01T03:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T03:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/109207\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T03:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T03:18:12","slug":"spacex-launches-west-coast-falcon-9-rocket-on-starlink-13-4-mission-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/109207\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches West Coast Falcon 9 rocket on Starlink 13-4 mission \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250731-Starlink-13-4-Mission.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70369\"  \/>A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 13-4 mission. Image: SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>Some classified satellites might have hitched a ride with 19 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX from the company\u2019s West Coast launch site on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff from a fog-shrouded pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 11:32:09 a.m. PDT (2:35:09 p.m. EDT \/ 18:35:09 UTC).<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX did not provide views in its webcast from the second stage of the Falcon 9, which usually includes video of the separation of the payload fairing. Previously, this has been an indication that additional classified satellites, likely based on the company\u2019s Starshield platform, were aboard. SpaceX had said there were 19 Starlink satellites nestled inside the rocket\u2019s payload fairing, which is a less-than-usual number.<\/p>\n<p>Based on pre-launch information, the mission\u2019s payloads were destined for a polar orbit of 202\u00d7193 miles (325\u00d7311 km), inclined at 97.6 degrees to the equator. An hour after launch SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of 19 Starlink satellites. The exact number of satellites aboard will be disclosed when tracking data is released.<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink 13-4 mission used one of SpaceX\u2019s fleet-leading Falcon 9 boosters. First stage B1071, which entered service in February 2022, made its 27th flight. Only booster 1067 has more flights, with 29 missions accomplished to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 13-4 mission.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-109207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}