SpaceX plans a Saturday night Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 21 Starlink satellites and two Starshield satellites. Liftoff is set for 9:24:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 6, with live coverage beginning about 30 minutes before liftoff.
The night before liftoff, everything about this launch feels slightly sharper than a routine Starlink mission. On Saturday night. SpaceX is preparing to fly a Falcon 9 rocket out of Vandenberg Space Force Base with a bundle that includes 21 Starlink satellites—and two Starshield satellites tucked into the same flight.
Liftoff is scheduled for 9:24:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 6 (12:24:30 a.m. EDT / 0424:30 UTC on Sunday, June 7). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
Starshield is an alternate version of the Starlink satellite architecture meant for U.S. government use. SpaceX has not announced which U.S. government agency ordered these two satellites, and it also hasn’t said whether they’re meant for a foreign government.
The rocket itself will be a familiar workhorse: SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1097. This mission will mark its tenth flight, following earlier launches including NROL-172, the Twilight rideshare, and seven batches of Starlink satellites.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1097 will attempt a landing on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ If successful, it would be the 201st landing on that vessel and the 620th booster landing to date.
There’s a reason the Starshield portion of this flight is drawing extra attention: even when the government’s need is hinted at. the paperwork details aren’t. While never publicly declared by the National Reconnaissance Office. the 13 launches supporting its “multi-phenomenology proliferated architecture” satellite constellation are believed to consist of Starshield satellites. In April 2024, Reuters reported that Northrop Grumman is providing sensors for some of the SpaceX satellites.
The upcoming launch sits inside a larger sequence that has already tested the same approach. In 2025, SpaceX launched Starlink 13-1 and Starlink 13-4, which reportedly included two Starshield satellites each. Those satellites are listed by the U.S. Space Force as USA 485. 486. 549. and 550—and they have also not been publicly connected to a specific part of the U.S. government.
For Saturday night, SpaceX hasn’t offered more than the mission parameters and the expected hardware. The rest—the identities of the buyers. the exact mission role. and how these satellites fit into a wider constellation—will have to wait for whatever comes after the rocket comes home and the data starts rolling in.
SpaceX Starlink Starshield Falcon 9 Vandenberg Space Force Base NROL-172 Twilight rideshare B1097 Of Course I Still Love You National Reconnaissance Office Northrop Grumman sensors
Two Starshield satellites? So like spying but for the government again. Cool cool.
I don’t get it, if it’s Starlink why call it Starshield. Sounds like they’re just renaming the same thing and pretending it’s different.
Wait, they said it might land and if it fails then what, the satellites just fall out? Also NRO sounds made up like some agency in a movie lol.
Not gonna lie, “Of Course I Still Love You” sounds like they named the drone ship after Twitter comments or something. And 21 Starlink + 2 Starshield… that’s basically all of the internet in one launch right?