A brand-new Falcon 9 booster rolls to the pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday afternoon – and you do not have to be standing on a hillside along the Central Coast to see it fly. LaunchDetect lets you watch the Starlink Group 17-35 launch from 22,000 miles above the California coastline, tracking the rocket’s thermal signature in satellite infrared as it arcs southward over the Pacific on a polar trajectory. The view from orbit is open to anyone for $3/month. Until now, it belonged to government satellite operators. Now it is yours.
Mission Details
Starlink Group 17-35 is the latest deployment in SpaceX’s relentless buildout of its global broadband constellation. A Falcon 9 Block 5 will carry 25 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a polar low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg. These V2 Mini satellites are the workhorse of the current-generation constellation – compact enough to fly 25 per mission yet equipped with more powerful antennas, improved laser inter-satellite links, and greater throughput than their v1.5 predecessors.
The polar orbit targeted by this mission is critical for filling coverage gaps at high latitudes. While most Starlink traffic rides on satellites launched from Cape Canaveral into 53-degree-inclination orbits, polar-orbit shells launched from Vandenberg sweep over the Arctic, Antarctic, and every remote latitude in between. These satellites will be deployed at roughly 290 km altitude before raising themselves to an operational shell near 530 km using onboard ion thrusters over the weeks that follow.
SpaceX has now surpassed 10,000 simultaneous operational Starlink satellites in orbit as of March 2026. This mission adds another 25 to that count.
When and Where
Launch date: Sunday, April 6, 2026
Launch window: 4:03 p.m. – 8:03 p.m. PDT / 7:03 p.m. – 11:03 p.m. EDT / 23:03 – 03:03 UTC
Launch site: Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Booster: Maiden flight – the first launch for this first-stage booster, which will attempt a landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You stationed in the Pacific Ocean roughly eight minutes after liftoff.
This mission has slipped several days from its original target, so the window above reflects the latest available schedule. If weather or technical issues intervene, a backup opportunity exists on Monday, April 7.
Watch From the Sky on LaunchDetect
Here is what watching a Vandenberg launch usually looks like: you pull up a stream, squint at a pad camera two miles away, watch the Falcon 9 shrink into a white dot against the California sky, and then it is gone. You sit there wondering if stage separation happened, if the booster is heading back, if the satellites deployed. You are stuck on the ground, looking up, and your view ended thirty seconds after ignition.
Now imagine the opposite.
LaunchDetect puts you above the Pacific, looking down. When the nine Merlin engines ignite at SLC-4E on Sunday afternoon, you will see a thermal bloom appear on the California coastline in satellite infrared imagery – frame by frame, the way analysts at a space operations center would see it. You will watch the Falcon 9’s trajectory corridor stretch southward over the Pacific on an interactive 3D globe, tracing the polar arc that most viewers never visualize. You will know the moment the rocket clears the pad, and you will still be tracking it long after every ground camera has lost sight.
This orbital perspective used to live behind security clearances and government terminals. LaunchDetect put it in a browser and priced it at $3/month.
The Silver plan is everything you need to experience launches the way they were meant to be seen – from space:
- Frame-by-frame satellite thermal imagery – The infrared heat signature of a Falcon 9 as seen from orbit. No other public platform on the planet shows you this.
- 3D trajectory tracking on an interactive globe – Watch the polar-orbit insertion arc from Vandenberg southward across the Pacific. Rotate, zoom, understand the full flight path in three dimensions.
- Real-time event detection – Know the instant the engines light. Watch detection confidence update live as the mission progresses.
- Launch prediction catalog – Stop finding out about launches from someone’s retweet. See what is coming before the rest of the internet catches up.
- Complete launch schedule with countdowns – Every mission worldwide, ticking down to the second. The Starlink 17-35 countdown is already running.
- Live launch chat – Share the moment with people watching the same orbital view you are.
Three dollars a month. That is less than a single coffee, less than any streaming service you already pay for, and it gives you the ability to observe every launch on Earth from an orbital vantage point that did not exist for the public until LaunchDetect built it.
For organizations, defense analysts, and power users, the Business plan at $100/month unlocks historical detection archives, the Data Gateway REST API, live detection webhooks, and API key management.
What to Expect
Here is the launch day timeline:
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| T-38 min | SpaceX launch director polls for go/no-go on propellant loading |
| T-35 min | RP-1 and liquid oxygen loading begins |
| T-7 min | Falcon 9 engine chill sequence |
| T-1 min | Flight computer takes command of final countdown |
| T-0 | Liftoff from SLC-4E |
| T+1:12 | Max aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q) |
| T+2:30 | First stage main engine cutoff (MECO) |
| T+2:33 | Stage separation |
| T+2:40 | Second stage Merlin Vacuum engine ignition |
| T+6:20 | First stage entry burn |
| T+8:20 | First stage landing on Of Course I Still Love You |
| T+8:50 | Second stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) |
| T+~57 min | Starlink satellite deployment |
After deployment, the 25 V2 Mini satellites will separate in a train formation and gradually raise their orbits from the initial insertion altitude to their operational shell over the following weeks using Hall-effect ion thrusters.
A New Booster Takes Flight
Sunday marks a maiden voyage – the first flight ever for this Falcon 9 first stage. New boosters are always worth watching. Every component is flying for the first time, every weld joint is seeing flight loads for the first time, and if the landing succeeds, this booster joins SpaceX’s reusable fleet for years of service ahead. SpaceX has been averaging more than a launch per week in 2026, and fresh boosters entering the fleet are what keep that pace sustainable.
Set a reminder for 4:03 p.m. PDT on Sunday, April 6. Open LaunchDetect, pull up the 3D globe, and center it on the California coast. When ignition comes, you will not be watching a dot vanish into the sky from a ground camera. You will be watching from orbit – seeing the thermal signature of a brand-new Falcon 9 bloom on the coastline, tracking its polar trajectory as it sweeps southward over the Pacific, and following 25 satellites as they begin their climb to join a constellation of more than ten thousand.
Don’t watch this launch from the ground. Watch it from the sky.