SpaceX takes over Vandenberg SFB, too.

Pretty much.  This past Monday, June 16, SpaceX launched its latest batch of 26 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit shortly after sunset.

So what?  The mission, Starlink 15-9, happened to be the 200th orbital launch from Vandenberg's SLC-4E.  The first launch of anything from SLC-4E was in May, 1964, an Atlas-Agena rocket shortly after the Air Force Western Test Range was activated and "Vandy" would go on to launch multiple variants of the Titan rocket until October 2005.  SpaceX used Vandenberg for some of their early, experimental work on the Falcon 1, but then went through a period of not being allowed to use the Space Force Base (Air Force Base in those days). 

One of the defining events early in the history of SpaceX is when the company was effectively booted from Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2005 after completing the first successful test firing of the Falcon 1 rocket there. This set the company off on a long romp to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean before acquiring a launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. When SpaceX finally returned to Vandenberg half a decade later, it had the Falcon 9 rocket and was no longer the scrappy upstart. Since then, it has made Vandenberg its own. 

Of the 200 orbital launches from SLC-4E, 131 have been Falcon 9 launches - almost exactly two thirds.  You might recall that having just been cleared to proceed, SpaceX is in the process of rebuilding another launch complex at Vandenberg, SLC-6, so that it can handle Falcon Heavy and more Falcon 9 launches. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (Booster B1093) lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base shortly after sunset on June 16, 2025, to begin the Starlink 15-9 mission.  Image credit: SpaceX