SpaceX Launches USSF-627, Nails Booster’s Seventh Landing

SpaceX launched its USSF-627 mission from California on Wednesday night, sending a Falcon 9 off the pad before recovering its first-stage booster in the Pacific Ocean.

The rocket lifted off at 8:36 p.m. Pacific on November 11 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, according to SpaceX’s official mission recap.

This was the booster’s seventh flight. Its previous missions included NROL-179, SDA-T1TL-E, SDA-T1TL-A and three Starlink launches, giving the vehicle a mix of government and commercial satellite missions before its latest assignment.

After separating from the upper stage, the booster returned to land on Of Course I Still Love You, SpaceX’s droneship stationed in the Pacific. The company separately confirmed both liftoff and the first-stage landing on X.

SpaceX’s public mission page does not identify the payload or provide a deployment timeline. The confirmed milestones are the launch and booster recovery, rather than a publicly announced payload-deployment result.

The flight adds to a run of U.S. Space Force missions launched from Vandenberg. SpaceX flew USSF-153 from the same pad on September 10, followed by USSF-259 on September 16 after an earlier scrub. Both also used Falcon 9 and a Pacific droneship recovery.

Falcon 9’s reusable first stage handles the initial climb before separating, while its upper stage continues the mission. Bringing the booster back for another flight is central to SpaceX’s launch cadence, and this vehicle has now completed seven trips off the pad.