SpaceX launches Crew-12 on Falcon 9, lands first booster at new LZ ...
SpaceX opened February 13 with a dual milestone at Cape Canaveral, featuring a successful Crew-12 astronaut launch.
www.teslarati.comI can share what’s publicly known about SpaceX Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) and summarize recent activity, but I don’t have live access to current news feeds in this moment.
Key points about Landing Zone 4
- Location and purpose: Landing Zone 4 is SpaceX’s dedicated drone-landing pad at Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It sits adjacent to the launch pad used for Falcon 9 missions, with LZ-4 specifically serving as the return/landing site for first stages.[2][8]
- Operational history: LZ-4 has been used for multiple Falcon 9 landings since its active introduction around 2018, with several successful landings documented over the years at Vandenberg AFB.[3][2]
- Public context: Vandenberg’s SLC-4 area includes two pads—one for launch and the other historically used as the landing zone (LZ-4) for Falcon 9 recoveries.[2]
Recent and notable items (as of late 2025–early 2026)
- Spaceflight Now and related outlets have covered missions where SpaceX used SLC-4/East and SLC-4 West areas for landing activities, illustrating ongoing use of LZ-4 as a return site for first-stage boosters from missions launched from nearby pads.[3]
- News coverage around 2025–2026 also notes SpaceX’s broader strategy of optimizing landing operations at existing pads (including LZ-4) to improve turnaround times and operational efficiency, with some mentions of related infrastructure updates at other sites such as Cape Canaveral; however, LZ-4-specific updates during this window are less frequently highlighted than broader SpaceX landing activity.[4][5]
Illustrative context
- A typical Falcon 9 mission that deploys from Vandenberg would use the launch pad for lift-off and then aim to land that same first stage at LZ-4, aligning with SpaceX’s reuse objectives and high-precision guidance technology. This tandem launch-and-landing configuration is characteristic of SpaceX’s operations at Vandenberg and mirrors patterns seen at Cape Canaveral with adjacent landing zones in related contexts.[2][3]
Would you like me to pull the very latest live updates from a current news source or provide a quick comparison of LZ-4’s role versus other SpaceX landing zones (e.g., LZ-1, Cape Canaveral sites) with a concise table? I can also summarize any recent mission that specifically mentions an LZ-4 landing if you have a preferred date range.