Southland residents who gazed upward on Monday evening, March 18, likely saw a falcon soaring through the night sky.
But it wasn’t a bird of prey.
Instead, it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base shortly before 7:30 p.m., successfully delivering 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.
The rocket painted a trail of exhaust across the horizon.
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 com trail gong south west from Vandenberg SFB, seen at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 com trail gong south west from Vandenberg SFB, seen at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 com trail gong south west from Vandenberg SFB, seen at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 com trail gong south west from Vandenberg SFB, seen at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 com trail off the west coast launches from Vandenberg SFB, seen from Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 launches from Vandenberg SFB, seen from Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 launches from Vandenberg SFB, seen from Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 launches as the fairings come off the 2nd stage from Vandenberg SFB, seen from Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
A Space X Falcon 9 rocket 7-16 launches from Vandenberg SFB, seen from Griffith Park Observatory Monday Los Angeles CA/USA. March 18,2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
The Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket, according to SpaceX’s website. After launching and separating from the second stage, the first-stage rocket successfully landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean dubbed “Of Course I Still Love You,” according to the Hawthorne aerospace company’s X account, formerly Twitter.
Monday’s launch was the 10th from Vandenberg this year, according to SpaceX.
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