{"id":"1792709218863-tech-segment","slug":"spacex-booster-s-36th-flight","title":"SpaceX Booster's 36th Flight","summary":"SpaceX is launching 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3:51 p.m. PDT. The Falcon 9 booster B1063 is flying for the 36th time and will attempt a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The launch was delayed from Tuesday and Wednesday by a technical issue and bad weather.\n\nThe mission is part of SpaceX's rapid Starlink expansion. In Q3 2026, SpaceX added 1.6 million Starlink customers, reported $5.2 billion in connectivity revenue, and had more than 11,100 Starlink satellites in orbit. The company is also preparing to deploy larger Starlink V3 satellites on Starship, which it says will deliver over 20 times the downlink capacity of current Falcon 9 launches.\n\nSpaceX is scheduled to launch 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3:51 p.m. PDT, after weather and technical delays.","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T22:46:58.863Z","channel":{"id":"tech","name":"Oncast Tech","language":"en"},"show":"Tech Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: SpaceX is scheduled to launch 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3:51 p.m. PDT, after weather and technical delays.\nSource: [spaceflightnow.com](https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/10/20/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-27-starlink-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-vandenberg-sfb-5/) NAME (https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2113400239017378069)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"SpaceX is scheduled to launch 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 3:51 p.m. PDT, after weather and technical delays.","sourceName":"[spaceflightnow.com](https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/10/20/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-27-starlink-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-vandenberg-sfb-5/) NAME","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2113400239017378069","claim":"Watch Falcon 9 launch 27 @Starlink satellites to orbit from California https://t.co/7PhslAU5ac","author":"@SpaceX"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2113400239017378069","name":"[spaceflightnow.com](https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/10/20/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-27-starlink-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-vandenberg-sfb-5/) NAME","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"@SpaceX"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792709218863-tech-segment-spacex-booster-s-36th-flight","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/tech","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792709218863-tech-segment-spacex-booster-s-36th-flight","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792709218863-tech-segment-spacex-booster-s-36th-flight and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Chris","text":"SpaceX just posted that they're launching 27 more Starlink satellites from California."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Business as usual, then."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Not for me. I'm still not used to a booster flying for the THIRTY-SIXTH time."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Thirty-six? For the same booster?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"And it's going to try to land on a droneship called 'A Shortfall of Gravitas'."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"They name those ships like a midlife crisis names a boat. But fine, 36 flights is a genuinely wild number."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The booster first flew years ago. Now it's dodging retirement and hauling up satellites for a 174-market network."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And the deeper story here is the money. Starlink pulled in $5.2 billion in connectivity revenue last quarter alone."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Shotwell pitches it as reaching schools, disaster zones, all of it."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But here's where I push back: they added 1.6 million customers in one quarter. That's enormous, and I still don't think it justifies the hype until they prove the V3 satellites on Starship actually work."},{"host":"Chris","text":"They're launching 27 today, and the plan is to move to Starship launches with over 20 times the downlink capacity."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Right. But the CFO himself said Starship's flight rate is critical to future growth. 'Future' is doing a lot of work there."},{"host":"Chris","text":"And when Starship works the way they say, satellite internet stops being a niche product and becomes a utility. That's the whole argument."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I get that. But right now, the Falcon 9 is the proven workhorse. Starship is still a rocket that has to prove it can launch payloads on a schedule, not just occasionally."},{"host":"Chris","text":"So you want me to be unimpressed by a reusable booster flying 36 times? Just because Starship hasn't hit its cadence yet?"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I want you to separate the launch today from the business case for tomorrow. And I don't think it's wrong to say Starship's still the bottleneck."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The bottleneck is also the answer. They're building the machine that builds the network. That's not hype, that's just engineering."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Sold as a story, it's great. Sold as a revenue plan, it's still 'wait and see.'"},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'll wait. You can wait less enthusiastically."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Speaking of people selling stories, here's one from a different corner of the internet."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Kyle Tibbitts, who works at a travel platform called Wander, posted that the AI era is the direct booking era for travel operators."},{"host":"Chris","text":"'AI era is direct booking era'—that's a lot of words to say 'we want you to pay us instead of a middleman.'"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"His actual point: bookings from agents are surging on their platform, both on their own site and through booking engines they power."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I've used AI assistants to plan trips. They'll suggest a flight, a hotel, and suddenly you're three tabs deep in an affiliate link."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And that's what Tibbitts is saying operators can win: if you own the direct relationship, you don't lose the customer to a search engine."},{"host":"Chris","text":"But a hotel chain's 'direct booking' is just another checkout page. The AI assistant doesn't care who gets the commission."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Unless the assistant works for the operator. That's the play. It books direct, then the operator keeps the margin."},{"host":"Chris","text":"So every travel company with a logo is about to launch their own AI agent. Great. More pop-ups asking me to 'say hello' to a floating concierge."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Meanwhile, real travelers are using AI to write pickup lines and failing at it."},{"host":"Chris","text":"That's not a news story. That's just Tuesday on the internet."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Buffalo Waltz posted a picture of himself after using a pickup line his friend suggested, then said 'he's the one to blame.'"},{"host":"Chris","text":"And then adds he's also the one blaming ChatGPT in the next frame. The AI generated the line, the friend delivered it, and everyone's responsible except the guy who used it."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I actually think that's the whole AI era in one image: nobody takes responsibility for what the machine says."},{"host":"Chris","text":"It's a joke about a bad pickup line, Matilda. Not a referendum on agency."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"It can be both. The kid outsources the blame to the tool, and the tool has no idea what it did."},{"host":"Chris","text":"It never does. That's the point."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And that's the show, really: who takes responsibility for the line, and who's just talking about it."}]}