The SpaceX rocket lifted off at 8:36 p.m. from its launchpad at the California base and reached low Earth orbit about 8½ minutes later.

SpaceX lit up the Southern California skies Monday night with the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The rocket, carrying 26 Starlink satellites, blasted off at 8:36 p.m.

The skies may no longer be free for the space industry. Rocket companies like SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) may soon be required to pay a fee to support FAA oversight and airspace coordination, part of a broader effort to keep up with the growing launch industry.

Check back for live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team updates on this page, starting about 90 minutes before the early morning SpaceX launch window opens.

Ax-4 is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT). That's a one-day delay; SpaceX had been targeting Tuesday morning (June 10) but pushed things back due to expected high winds in the area.

This year's launch cadence is outpacing last year's by 3½ weeks on Florida's Space Coast: The 50th orbital launch of 2024 did not occur until July 8.

That mission, Ax-4, is Axiom's fourth crewed flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It was slated to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 11, but a liquid oxygen leak discovered in the booster delayed things by a day. That was followed by the detection of another leak, but this time at Ax-4's orbital destination.

United Launch Alliance scrubbed an attempt for what would have been its second launch of the year, another mission for Amazon's effort to compete with SpaceX's Starlink internet constellation.