SpaceX Launches Classified USSF-153 Mission for U.S. Space Force

SpaceX is set to launch a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force today (Sept. 10), sending a Falcon 9 rocket aloft from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, called USSF-153, has a three-hour launch window opening at 11:37 a.m. EDT (8:37 a.m. local time), and SpaceX plans to stream the launch live starting about 10 minutes beforehand. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the rocket's reusable first-stage booster is set to land on a SpaceX drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, and the webcast is expected to end shortly after that landing.

USSF-153 is classified, so little is publicly known about its payload or destination. Space news outlet NextSpaceflight.com has suggested the mission might carry a batch of classified satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) — the same near-Earth zone where SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellites operate — for a U.S. government entity, built on SpaceX's Starshield satellite bus. The outlet based this on the rocket-stage drop zones being an exact match for earlier Starlink Group 15 launches. SpaceX describes Starshield as a system that "leverages SpaceX's Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts."

Today's flight is the 104th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, and it marks the 27th flight for this booster, designated Booster 1081. SpaceX has leaned heavily on its own satellite program this year: 80 of the rocket's 2026 missions have gone toward building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which now numbers more than 11,000 active satellites in orbit.

The reuse record for a single SpaceX booster currently stands at 37 flights, a mark set last month during a separate Starlink launch.