SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched the classified USSF-259 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, after Tuesday’s attempt was scrubbed prior to fueling with no public reason given.
Liftoff came at 6:07:56 p.m. PDT / 9:07:56 p.m. EDT (01:07:56 UTC on 17 September). SpaceX confirmed Falcon 9 put USSF-259 into orbit.
USSF-259 is a national-security payload under NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 (TH-1 in public docs), and the details for what is onboard remain classified, as usual — the same pattern as USSF-153 on 10 September and USSF-366 on 15 August. That makes this the third Space Systems Command Lane 1 Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg in roughly a month. These launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base are fairly regular, and will likely be one of the long-term uses for Falcon 9 as the Starlink mission is eventually handed over to Starship.
Landing in the Pacific
About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, Falcon 9 booster B1097 landed on Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific. For SpaceX, this was a routine orbital insertion with a routine droneship recovery on the west coast, with the booster coming downrange at sea.
Spaceflight Now marked the touchdown as the 224th landing for this vessel and the 661st Falcon booster landing. For those who followed USSF-153 from the same pad family, the pattern stayed familiar: SLC-4E for the climb and OCISLY for the landing.
13th Flight for This Booster
This was the 13th flight for B1097. Prior flights SpaceX lists for that booster include Sentinel-6B, Twilight, NROL-172, Transporter-17, and eight Starlink missions. Next Spaceflight tracks the same Vandenberg Lane 1 string.
