SpaceX Sends Second Classified US Space Force Payload into Orbit

At 9:07 p.m. EDT on September 16, 2026, a familiar roar split the twilight over California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 surged skyward, bearing the cryptic payload dubbed USSF‑259 for the U.S. Space Force.

Because the mission is classified, the live webcast was deliberately sparse – the camera lingered on the launch pad, then cut away as the first stage separated. All we could see, beyond the plume of flame, was the inevitable drama of the booster’s return.

Booster B1097, the veteran heart of this flight, performed its 13th landing on the autonomous drone ship bobbing in the Pacific, just 8½ minutes after liftoff. That same booster earned a bit of fame earlier this year when it marked SpaceX’s 600th orbital‑class touchdown during a Starlink deployment in April.

This launch was the second classified U.S. Space Force mission SpaceX has flown in a single week. Just six days earlier, on September 10, the same launch complex launched USSF‑153, also on a Falcon 9.

In total, the Sept 16 flight was SpaceX’s 110th launch of 2026. The bulk of those, 106 to be exact, have been Falcon 9 missions – a testament to the rocket’s reliability. The heavy‑lift Falcon Heavy has only lifted off twice this year, and the next‑gen Starship has also logged two sub‑orbital tests. SpaceX says an orbital Starship flight is slated for sometime in the next fortnight.

Looking back at B1097’s résumé, it’s been a busy little booster: it lofted the Sentinel‑6B ocean‑monitoring satellite, the twilight‑themed NROL‑172 national security payload, the Transporter‑17 rideshare, and no fewer than eight Starlink batches. Its longevity is a small miracle in a business where many rockets are retired after a handful of flights.

While the specifics of USSF‑259 remain under wraps, the successful launch and recovery underscore how quickly SpaceX has become the go‑to launch partner for the U.S. military’s secretive missions.