October 20, 2025 | 05:15 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The United States government has officially granted SpaceX permission to increase the number of rocket launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to 100 missions per year. Previously, Elon Musk's company was only allowed to conduct 50 launches annually.
The approval was announced on October 10, 2025, after the U.S. Air Force Department approved SpaceX's proposal to expand activities at Vandenberg, a rocket launch complex on the central coast of California. The decision was made after the department released a final report on the environmental impact of SpaceX's increased activities there.
Up to this point, the only SpaceX rocket to have flown from Vandenberg is the Falcon 9, with all of its launches conducted from Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC-4E). With the new permit, the company will launch the Falcon Heavy from Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6), which was last used in 2022. According to the Air Force statement on October 14, the pad has been modified to support missions of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The new permit can also be used for up to five Falcon Heavy launches per year from SLC-6. However, this quota of rocket launches is unlikely to be fully utilized. The Falcon Heavy has not flown for over a year, while SpaceX is currently focused on developing the Starship, a giant rocket that is entirely reusable and designed to help humans explore and settle on Mars.
Despite the military's green light, the decision is not yet final. "The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial launches, will issue an independent ROD based on its conclusions," said a statement from Air Force Officials last Tuesday, as quoted from a Space report on October 17.
Where Does SpaceX Launch Rockets From?
Currently, SpaceX has four launch sites: Vandenberg in California, Starbase in South Texas, as well as Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center NASA in Florida. Starbase serves as the development and testing center for Starship, which has so far completed 11 test flights.
Launches from Vandenberg are generally used for missions to polar orbit, which are popular for Earth observation satellites. Due to the Earth's rotation from west to east, satellites orbiting from north to south can scan almost the entire surface of the planet.
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