{"id":861777,"date":"2026-09-26T21:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861777\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T21:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:52:19","slug":"spacex-falcon-9-launches-classified-mission-for-u-s-space-force-from-west-coast-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861777\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Falcon 9 launches classified mission for U.S. Space Force from West Coast \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-74411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260926_USSF_385_San_Miguelito_Cyn.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"313\"  \/>SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket soars away from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, during the sunrise launch of the USSF-385 mission. Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at dawn on Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a mission to continue deployment of a secretive U.S. military satellite constellation.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff of the USSF-385 mission lifted off in dense fog at 7:00:54 a.m. PDT (10:00:54 a.m. EDT \/ 1400:54 UTC). The rocket took a southerly trajectory on departure from the pad at Space Launch Complex 4-East.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>This classified mission for the U.S. Space Force is thought to be the third in a series of flights to deploy satellites based on SpaceX\u2019s Starshield, a version of a Starlink satellite intended for government use. SpaceX said it was not showing views of the rocket\u2019s payload or second stage at the request of its customer.<\/p>\n<p>The first satellites in this particular constellation were launched from Vandenberg on USSF-366 on Aug. 15 and USSF-153 on Sept. 10. Although the Space Force revealed no details about the missions, it cataloged 23 satellites in orbit following each launch.<\/p>\n<p>A similar classified mission, USSF-259, headed to a different orbit on Sept. 17 and appeared to carry 17 satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The first stage booster, B1100, flew for a 10th time and landed on the drone ship \u2018Of Course I Still Love You\u2019, around eight and a half minutes after launch.<\/p>\n<p>It was the sixth and final Falcon 9 launch of the month from Vandenberg, which has become the prime site for SpaceX as it shifts its focus at Cape Canaveral to Starship operations. Just one Falcon 9 flew from the company\u2019s East Coast launch site in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket soars away from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, during the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-861777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861777","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=861777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}