SpaceX launches 81 satellites on Transporter-17 mission, booster lands on drone ship

SpaceX launched 81 payloads from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Transporter-17 rideshare mission, with the Falcon 9’s first stage landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as the upper stage continued delivering payloads to low Earth orbit; among the satellites was CAS500-4 from South Korea. The mission marked SpaceX’s 79th Falcon 9 launch of 2026 as it advances satellite deployments to orbit.