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Live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Twilight rideshare mission from Vandenberg, California

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket from California carrying a multitude of payloads to a dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbit. Liftoff of the Twilight rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 5:44 a.m. PST (8:44 a.m. EST / 1344 …

Twilight Mission

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SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

Pandora / Twilight rideshare mission

Overview

Destination: Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Mission: Astrophysics

Sun-Synchronous Orbit Space Launch Complex 4E Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
B1097 - Landing Zone 4

The Pandora small satellite was selected in 2021 as an inaugural mission in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. It includes a 0.45-meter telescope that will improve our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres by disentangling exoplanet signals from their host stars, as well as studying host star variability with long-duration observations of 20 unique planets through visible-light photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy. Also launching on this launch are 39 other ride-share payloads under the "Falcon 9 Twilight mission" manifested by Exolaunch, including satellites from Spire Global and Kepler Communications.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

hitura-nobad • Jan. 11, 2026, 4:21 p.m.

All payloads deployed, launch successful.


hitura-nobad • Jan. 11, 2026, 1:45 p.m.

Liftoff


LL2 • Jan. 11, 2026, 1:25 p.m.

Unofficial Re-stream by SPACE AFFAIRS has started


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 11, 2026, 4:55 a.m.

Tweaked T-0.


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 11, 2026, 4:03 a.m.

Now targeting Jan 11 at 13:44 UTC


Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549.0 T
  • Thrust
    7607.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1097

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: September 3, 2025
Last Flight: May 12, 2026
Flights: 9
Landings Attempted: 9
Landings Successful: 9
Previous B1097 Flights

Landing Information

The Falcon 9 first stage B1097 has landed on Landing Zone 4 after its 5th flight.

Result: Successful Return to Launch Site landing at Landing Zone 4.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 668 Failures: 15 Pending: 124

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

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