{"id":66695,"date":"2026-10-15T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=7c91ed1563f2da8fc3f186f3cd47e189"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:43:08","slug":"watch-spacex-launch-classified-mission-for-the-us-space-force-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/10\/15\/watch-spacex-launch-classified-mission-for-the-us-space-force-today-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches classified mission for the US Space Force (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/SVnhfRc6.html\" id=\"SVnhfRc6\" title=\"SpaceX launches classified US Space Force mission, nails landing\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1076\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>SpaceX launched a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California this evening (Oct. 15).<\/p><p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\"><u>Falcon 9<\/u><\/a> rocket lifted off from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/34147-vandenberg-air-force-base.html\"><u>Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/u><\/a> today at 8:01 p.m. EDT (5:01 p.m. local time; 0001 GMT on Oct. 16), rising into clear blue skies above the Golden State's central coast.<\/p><p>Such visibly striking launches are far from guaranteed; Vandenberg and its scenic surroundings are often blanketed by fog, making rocket watching in the area a dicey proposition.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2560px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"2AmLySFrC9Z4LrAjuQ3SkK\" name=\"Screenshot 2026-10-15 at 5.19.11\u202fPM\" alt=\"a black and white rocket rests on the deck of a ship at sea\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/2AmLySFrC9Z4LrAjuQ3SkK-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">The Falcon 9's first stage rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching the USSF-481 mission on Oct. 15, 2026. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: SpaceX)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>This evening's launch kicked off the USSF-481 mission, which is delivering mysterious payloads to an undisclosed location in the final frontier. <\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\"><u>SpaceX<\/u><\/a> didn't provide much more info during its launch webcast; it ended just after the Falcon 9 first stage's landing, which occurred as planned about 8.5 minutes after launch on the drone ship \"Of Course I Still Love You,\" which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p><p>USSF-481 was the 28th flight for this particular booster, which is designated 1081. Sixteen of its previous 27 launches were devoted to building out SpaceX's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starlink-satellites.html\"><u>Starlink<\/u><\/a> broadband megaconstellation in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/low-earth-orbit\"><u>low Earth orbit<\/u><\/a>, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/ussf481\" ><u>SpaceX mission description<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><div  class=\"fancy-box\"><div class=\"fancy_box-title\">Previous Booster 1081 missions<\/div><div class=\"fancy_box_body\"><p class=\"fancy-box__body-text\"><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-nasa-crew-7-launch-international-space-station\"><strong>Crew-7<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-crs-29-iss-cargo-mission-launch\"><strong>CRS-29<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-launches-nasa-pace-climate-ocean-satellite\"><strong>PACE<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-transporter-10-launch-satellites\"><strong>Transporter-10<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-earthcare-satellite-mission-launch\"><strong>EarthCARE<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-nrol-186-spy-satellite-launch\"><strong>NROL-186<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-74-satellites-transporter-13-rideshare-launch\"><strong>Transporter-13<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/science\/nasa-launching-tracers-mission-to-protect-earth-from-space-weather-today-how-to-watch-live\"><strong>TRACERS<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-launches-11th-batch-of-proliferated-architecture-us-spy-satellites\"><strong>NROL-48<\/strong><\/a><strong> | <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/private-spaceflight\/spacex-cosmo-skymed-second-generation-falcon-9-launch\"><strong>COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM3<\/strong><\/a><strong> | 16 Starlink missions<\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/div><p>USSF-481 was the 114th Falcon 9 mission of the year. The vast majority of the rocket's flights in 2026 \u2014 more than 70% of them \u2014 have been Starlink missions.<\/p><p>SpaceX has also launched its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39779-falcon-heavy-facts.html\"><u>Falcon Heavy<\/u><\/a> and Starship rockets three times so far this year. Falcon Heavy is an operational vehicle, but the fully reusable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html\"><u>Starship<\/u><\/a> remains in the test-flight phase. It reached orbit for the first time on its most recent launch, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-starship-megarocket-flight-14-orbital-launch-success\"><u>occurred on Sept. 28<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p><em><strong>Editor's note:<\/strong><\/em><em> This story was updated at 8:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 15 with news of successful launch and rocket landing.<\/em><\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX launched a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California this evening (Oct. 15), on the 114th Falcon 9 mission of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3556,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-launches-spacecraft","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66695"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66716,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695\/revisions\/66716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}