SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Tuesday night on a national security mission for the U.S. Space Force.
Liftoff of the USSF-259 mission is scheduled for 7:18 p.m. PDT (10:18 p.m. EDT / 0218 UTC). The rocket will fly on a southerly trajectory upon leaving Space Launch Complex 4E.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
The mission’s classified payload is expected to be deployed into a low Earth orbit, inclined roughly 80 degrees from the Equator. It will be SpaceX’s third launch in a month procured by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) through the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract.
To date, SSC has declined to confirm any details about these missions, which also included USSF-366 (launched Aug. 15) and USSF-153 (launched Sept. 10). Those missions were identified as R1 and R2 in public documents and each flight carried 23 satellites. USSF-259 is identified in the same documents as TH-1. A mission designated R-3 is scheduled for Sept. 27.
SpaceX will launch the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage B1097. This will be its 13th flight after previously launching NROL-172, Twilight, Transporter-17, Sentinel-6B, and eight batches of Starlink satellites.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1097 will target a landing on the droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 224th landing on this vessel and the 661st Falcon booster landing to date.
