SpaceX successfully launched NASA’s $170 million TRACERS mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on 23 July at 11:13 a.m. Pacific time, deploying a pair of identical satellites designed to study magnetic reconnection at the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere and improve space-weather forecasting. The Falcon 9 first-stage booster, flying for the 16th time, returned eight minutes later to Landing Zone 4, marking SpaceX’s 478th booster recovery and the 27th at the California pad. The liftoff came 24 hours after an initial attempt was scrubbed when a regional power outage disrupted Federal Aviation Administration air-traffic communications, leaving the launch range unavailable. SpaceX reported that both the rocket and payloads remained in good health during the delay. Flying as a rideshare, the mission also carried nine secondary spacecraft: NASA-funded smallsats Athena EPIC, PExT and REAL, the European Space Agency’s LIDE technology demonstrator, and five Skykraft satellites aimed at building a space-based air-traffic management network. Deployment of the payloads will be completed after a series of four upper-stage engine burns over roughly two hours.