SpaceX will conduct a launch for a secretive U.S. military satellite constellation before dawn on Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Liftoff of the USSF-385 mission atop a Falcon 9 is scheduled for 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT / 1400 UTC). The rocket will take a southerly trajectory on departure from the pad at Space Launch Complex 4-East.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about 30 minutes prior to launch.
The classified mission for the U.S. Space Force is thought to be the third in a series of flights to deploy satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield, a version of a Starlink satellite intended for government use.
The first satellites in this particular constellation were launched from Vandenberg on USSF-366 on Aug. 15 and USSF-153 on Sept. 10. Although the Space Force revealed no details about the missions, it cataloged 23 satellites in orbit following each launch.
A similar classified mission, USSF-259, headed to a different orbit on Sept. 17 and appeared to carry 17 satellites.
The first stage booster, B1100, is making its 10th flight and will land on the drone ship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, around eight and a half minutes after launch.
It will be the sixth and final Falcon 9 launch of the month from Vandenberg which has become the prime site for SpaceX as it shifts its focus at Cape Canaveral to Starship operations. Just one Falcon 9 flew from the company’s East Coast launch site in September.
