On December 18 at 04:41 UTC, the Starlink 33 mission launched atop Falcon 9 booster 1051 from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was the record eleventh flight for Booster 1051, which successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. Both fairings on this launch were reused, with one on its third flight and the other on its fourth.

This launch targeted the 53.2 inclination shell of the Starlink constellation. Because it launched from Vanderberg to that inclination, it only carried 52 satellites to orbit instead of the usual 53. Normally, it would have launched from LC-39A or SLC-40 in Florida, but they were both tied up with two more end-of-year missions for SpaceX: CRS-24 and Türksat 5B.

The trajectory for this launch was unusual because it flew over land directly after liftoff instead of going over the ocean and then turning. Rockets launched in the U.S. typically don’t fly over land. Vandenberg is limited to 56-degree inclination orbits at minimum, so 53 degrees required hugging the coast as much as possible, going over a bit of land south of Lompoc, and bending the trajectory even more eastward during the second stage burn. The second stage conducted a deorbit burn on its second orbit, burning up harmlessly over the South Pacific Ocean.

More Information

Starlink 28 discussion (Reddit)

Launch video