SpaceX called off the launch of 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 20, after running into what Spaceflight Now described as an apparent technical issue that could not be resolved inside the launch window. The outlet reports the Falcon 9 is now set to lift off during a window opening at 2:59 p.m. PDT (5:59 p.m. EDT / 2159 UTC) on Wednesday, October 21, flying a southeasterly trajectory from the pad.
What we know about the scrub
- Spaceflight Now timestamped the scrub notice at 7:06 p.m. EDT on October 20 (2306 UTC), with SpaceX targeting Wednesday afternoon instead.
- No fault has been identified publicly. The outlet’s wording — an apparent technical issue — is the only cause given, and SpaceX has not said whether it sits with the rocket, the pad or ground support equipment.
- The flight reuses first stage booster B1063, due to land on a droneship in the Pacific roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff.
Why it matters for satellite internet users
A one-day slip of 27 spacecraft changes nothing for anyone already connected: this batch adds capacity to a constellation the company puts above 11,100 satellites. What customers would feel is a sustained slowdown in launches, and that is the link between Tuesday’s scrub and the earnings call SpaceX held hours earlier, ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings test investors had been watching. On that call, Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said the company’s ability to raise the flight rate of orbital Starship missions is critical to future Starlink revenue growth, and that the satellite roadmap drives both the capacity and capability of the connectivity segment, Spaceflight Now reports.
The Q3 numbers, and their baselines
Connectivity revenue for the quarter was $5.2 billion, up 22 percent on the previous quarter, according to a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission cited by Spaceflight Now. Total costs and expenses for the segment rose $974 million year-over-year, which SpaceX attributed primarily to its growing satellite constellation, Starlink Kit deliveries and marketing initiatives to support revenue growth.
Spaceflight Now reports that President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said the service was active across 174 markets globally and that 1.6 million customers were added during the three-month period. “This number does not include additional hundreds of thousands of enterprise subscribers and aviation customers,” Shotwell said, according to the outlet — a reference to the airline market Starlink has been expanding into. She added that the company remains inspired by Starlink’s impact on communities, including service to hundreds of thousands of students and teachers in schools globally and emergency response during natural disasters.
Neither the filing nor Spaceflight Now’s account attaches any pricing or market-entry detail to those two figures: no residential plan cost, no hardware kit price and no tariff change is reported for the quarter, and the 174-market count arrives without a list of additions or a per-country subscriber split. For anyone tracking what Starlink charges or where it has newly switched on, the quarter’s disclosure is a no-change note rather than data.
For scale against that quarterly addition, Tech Times reported in August 2026 — month-old reporting, not from this week — that the current V2 Mini Optimized hardware served more than 10 million customers in more than 100 countries. The two counts are not directly comparable: one is markets, the other countries. No prior-quarter satellite total appears in either report, so the 11,100 figure carries no stated baseline of its own.
Starship, V3 and Starlink Mobile
Johnsen said that through the end of this year and across 2027 SpaceX expects to deploy Starlink V3 broadband satellites in meaningful volume, with each Starship launch ramping towards a payload that delivers more than 20 times the downlink capacity of a current-generation Falcon 9 Starlink launch, Spaceflight Now reports. The filing’s 11,100-satellite total already includes the 26 V3 satellites launched during Starship Flight 14.
He also said SpaceX will ramp Starlink Mobile V2 satellites on Starship from 2027 and use its newly enhanced wireless spectrum portfolio to expand direct-to-device service and become a major mobile carrier in the United States — the business line behind Starlink Mobile, which has divided analysts valuing SpaceX. Shotwell, in remarks reported by the same outlet, said Starship itself will add capacity across markets and enable new sales in high-demand areas, and that demand for communications will grow by orders of magnitude as cars, robots and artificial intelligence are connected.
Sourcing note
This account rests on Spaceflight Now’s launch coverage and the SEC filing quoted within it, with scale and site context from the August 2026 Tech Times report flagged above. SpaceX does not take press questions on scrubs; no FAA notice or regulatory filing published so far addresses Tuesday’s stand-down. We will update if the company or a regulator identifies the fault.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did SpaceX disclose Starlink pricing or new country availability in its Q3 figures?
No. The SEC filing cited by Spaceflight Now reports Connectivity as a single revenue line, with no residential plan cost, no Starlink Kit price and no tariff change for the quarter. On availability, the only datum is Gwynne Shotwell’s count of 174 active markets, published without a list of which markets were added or any per-country subscriber split — so neither outlet carries a dated price or availability figure for Zimbabwe or any other individual African market.
Why does SpaceX launch Starlink satellites southward from California?
According to Tech Times, writing in August 2026, Vandenberg’s SLC-4E serves only the high-inclination polar and sun-synchronous shells, because a rocket launched southward from the California coast can reach those orbits without flying over populated areas. Tech Times says those shells push coverage into high latitudes such as Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia and Antarctic shipping routes.
Which booster was assigned to this flight, and where was it meant to land?
Spaceflight Now reports the mission uses first stage B1063 on its 36th flight, which would make it the second Falcon booster to reach three dozen missions. The planned droneship recovery would be the 229th landing on A Shortfall of Gravitas and the 673rd Falcon booster landing to date.
When is the next Starship launch expected?
Spaceflight Now reports founder Elon Musk as saying the next Starship flight is anticipated in November, planned to include a catch attempt of both the Ship and the Super Heavy booster, with Federal Aviation Administration approval still being sought.
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