SpaceX launched the USSF-153 mission on a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, September 10, 2026, confirming liftoff on X minutes after the three-hour window opened at 8:37 a.m. PT.
According to SpaceX’s USSF-153 mission page, the flight is the 27th for the first-stage booster supporting the mission, a vehicle that previously flew Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM3, and 16 Starlink missions. After stage separation, SpaceX planned to land that booster on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
USSF-153 is a U.S. Space Force mission with a classified payload, continuing SpaceX’s cadence of national-security launches beside the commercial Starlink train that recently put another Falcon 9 stack into California orbit. The same family of rockets underpins a broader Space Force relationship that includes earlier awards such as the $1.6 billion NSSL lane for 18 Falcon 9 flights.
SpaceX streamed the attempt live on its site and on X, with coverage of ascent and the planned droneship recovery before national-security protocol typically cuts the feed around payload work. Another high-flight-count booster recovery off the California coast keeps the company’s West Coast cadence humming even as the payload stays under wraps.
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