SpaceX is targeting Thursday, 10 September 2026, for a Falcon 9 launch of USSF-153 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The three-hour window opens at 8:37 a.m. PT. Just like most defence-related launches, the payload is classified, and SpaceX doesn’t provide any additional details on it.
Thursday Window, Friday Backup
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, September 10 for a Falcon 9 launch of the USSF-153 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The three-hour launch window opens at 8:37 a.m. PT. If needed, there is a backup opportunity on Friday, September 11 at 8:23 a.m. PT.
That Thursday window runs from 11:37 a.m. to 2:37 p.m. ET. The Friday backup opens at 11:23 a.m. ET. USSF-153 is the only flight on the SpaceX upcoming launches table, and it is the next near-term national-security Falcon 9 after the Roman Space Telescope.
The Booster and the Landing
This will be the 27th flight of the first-stage booster on this mission. SpaceX lists its earlier flights as Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, COSMO-SkyMED Second Generation FM3, and 16 Starlink missions.
SpaceX didn’t provide a particular tail number for this booster, but Spaceflight Now has identified it as booster B1081, which matches the flight history based on its launches to date.
After stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific, making for a towed-to-shore recovery. As usual with Falcon 9, droneship landings are regular business and nothing surprising to see.
Where to Watch the Launch
A live webcast is set to start about 10 minutes before liftoff, on the USSF-153 mission page and on X @SpaceX.
Surprisingly, putting aside Falcon 9’s tempo, this is the only launch that is on the upcoming launches table on SpaceX’s website. Given that SpaceX recently stopped Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida, this isn’t too surprising, but it is the first time that the launch table has been empty in quite some time. Recently, SpaceX was conducting double-header launches on either side of the continent nearly weekly, but this appears to finally be coming to a stop.
The next major step for SpaceX will be the leap to Starship, and all that entails, with IFT-14 scheduled for sometime this month.
