No Joke: SpaceX’s April Fool’s Day Starlink Mission Marked its Third Launch in Two Days

(Vandenberg Space Force Base, California) On Monday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. PT, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit (LEO) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking SpaceX’s third launch in the span of two days, after Saturday’s (Mar. 30) double-header in Florida.

Photo of of the Falcon 9 launch from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on April 1, 2024 courtesy of SpaceX on X, @spacex.

Yesterday’s launch marked the 15th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9, and now nine Starlink missions, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX launched a similar mission two about two weeks prior, on Monday, March 18th, when a crop of Starlink satellites were launched to LEO from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7.28pm PT.