{"id":849273,"date":"2026-09-16T02:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849273\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T02:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:16:11","slug":"spacex-scrubs-vandenberg-launch-of-national-security-payload-targets-backup-window-on-wednesday-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849273\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX scrubs Vandenberg launch of national security payload, targets backup window on Wednesday \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260915-USSF-259-on-Pad.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-74342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260915-USSF-259-on-Pad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"  \/><\/a>A Falcon 9 stands on Space Launch Complex 4E ahead of the USSF-259 mission at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Image: SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>Update Sept. 15, 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 UTC): SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt for the mission prior to fueling; targets backup opportunity on Wednesday, Sept. 16.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Wednesday night on a national security mission for the U.S. Space Force. The mission reset after a Tuesday launch attempt was scrubbed prior to fueling and without public explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff of the USSF-259 mission is scheduled during a four-hour window that opens at 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT \/ 0100 UTC). The rocket will fly on a southerly trajectory upon leaving Space Launch Complex 4E.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>The mission\u2019s classified payload is expected to be deployed into a low Earth orbit, inclined roughly 80 degrees from the Equator. It will be SpaceX\u2019s third launch in a month procured by the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space Systems Command (SSC) through the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract.<\/p>\n<p>To date, SSC has declined to confirm any details about these missions, which also included USSF-366 (launched Aug. 15) and USSF-153 (launched Sept. 10). Those missions were identified as R1 and R2 in public documents and each flight carried 23 satellites. USSF-259 is identified in the same documents as TH-1. A mission designated R-3 is scheduled for Sept. 27.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX will launch the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage B1097. This will be its 13th flight after previously launching NROL-172, Twilight, Transporter-17, Sentinel-6B, and eight batches of Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1097 will target a landing on the droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 224th landing on this vessel and the 661st Falcon booster landing to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Falcon 9 stands on Space Launch Complex 4E ahead of the USSF-259 mission at Vandenberg Space Force&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-849273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}