It was a record year for spaceflight in California, and even more rocket launches should be ahead in 2026.
SpaceX led the way in 2025 – helming a whopping 90% of the missions that got off the ground at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. Billionaire Elon Musk’s company blasted off its Falcon 9 rocket more than 60 times throughout the year on a variety of missions, most of which were to deploy SpaceX’s commercial Starlink internet satellites.
The regular cadence of rocket launches in 2025 reliably attracted crowds in Southern California and even as far away as Arizona, drawing spectators eager to glimpse SpaceX’s famed two-stage Falcon 9 thundering into the sky…