SpaceX

Of Course I Still Love You

A classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of ascent rocket stage drop zones being fits with previous SDA Transport Layer launches.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | USSF-481

Vandenberg SFB

Space Launch Complex 4E

Falcon 9 Block 5

Launch Date: October 15, 2026 (PDT)
Launch Time:  4:57 p.m. PDT, 2357 UTC (October 16, 01:57 CEST)
Launch Window: Open until 8:44 p.m. PDT
Launch Site: SLC-4E - Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Targeted Orbit: Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Launch Inclination: South
Launch Status: Scheduled and announced 

Mission: USSF-481
Launch Provider: SpaceX
Launcher System: Falcon 9 (Booster 1081 - Turnaround time 35 days)
Flight for the Booster: 28
Previous Flights of the Booster: 27 - Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, COSMO-SkyMED Second Generation FM3, USSF-153, and 16 Starlink missions.
Droneship: Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY)

Price: $74 million (without payload)
Diameter: 3,7 m
Height: 70 meters
Payload to Orbit: 22,800 LEO / ...

English

GO! - SpaceX - Falcon 9 - USSF-481 - SLC-4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA - Space Affairs Live

Unofficial Re-stream

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket from California carrying a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15 at 5:01 p.m. PDT (8:01 p.m. EDT  / 0001 UTC).

The first-stage booster, serial number B1081, launching for a 28th time, will land on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' about 8.5 minutes into the flight.

The USSF-481 mission will take a southerly trajectory upon departure from Vandenberg. 

Live commentary from Spaceflight Now's Will Robinson-Smith will be provided starting about 30 minutes prior to launch.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from California on classified U.S. Space Force mission

Unofficial Webcast

USSF-481 Mission

Official Webcast

A Shortfall of Gravitas

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Bandwagon 5 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Space Launch Complex 40

Bandwagon-5 Mission

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

MMX is a Japanese scientific mission to land on Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, to collect samples before bringing them back to Earth.

The mission includes a small French/German rover to explore the surface of Phobos.

H3-24 | Martian Moons eXploration (MMX)

Tanegashima Space Center

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2

H3-24

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Space X Starlink Mission Patch

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-15

Starlink Mission

Galactic Energy

Ceres-1S | Unknown Payload

Sea Launch

Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship

Ceres-1S

Rocket Lab

HawkEye 360 is a a space-based civil global intelligence satellite network using radio frequency (RF) technology to help monitor transportation across air, land and sea and assist with emergencies, and to provide civil SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) mission.

The constellation of small satellites (named Hawk ) will collect information on specific radio signals worldwide to provide high-precision radio frequency mapping and analytics from Low Earth orbit (LEO).

We're Not Hawking Around Patch

Electron | We're Not Hawking Around (3x HawkEye 360)

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1

Unknown Pad

Electron

CASC

Long March 8A | Unknown Payload

Wenchang Space Launch Site

Commercial LC-1

Long March 8A

Long March 4B | Unknown Payload

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603)

Long March 4B

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-16

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

45 satellites will be carried on each Vulcan launch.

Vulcan VC6L | Amazon Leo (LV-01)

Space Launch Complex 41

Vulcan VC6L

Long March 12A Landing Site

Second test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket. Payload identities are TBD.

Long March 12A | Flight 2

Long March 12A Pad

Long March 12A

ISRO

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS and will be used for military and civilian use. Located at a geosynchronous orbit, the system will be operated by the Indian government.

GSLV Mk II | IRNSS-1L (NVS-03)

Satish Dhawan Space Centre

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad

GSLV Mk. II

Ride-share launch of multiple satellites, including the in-orbit refueling demonstration satellite AayulSAT-1A from OrbitAID Aerospace. Other payload's identities TBD.

SSLV | AayulSAT-1A & others

Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad

SSLV

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

The Sea God Surveys Patch

Electron | The Sea God Surveys (iQPS Launch 9)

The Mountain God Rises Patch

Electron | The Mountain God Rises (iQPS Launch 10)

Arianespace

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

35-40 satellites will be carried on each Ariane 6 launch.

VA271 Patch

Ariane 64 Block 2 | Amazon Leo (LE-04)

Guiana Space Centre

Ariane Launch Area 4

Ariane 64 Block 2

ROSCOSMOS

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Soyuz 2.1b | Progress MS-36 (97P)

Baikonur Cosmodrome

31/6

Soyuz 2.1b

First uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

LVM-3 | Gaganyaan-1

Gaganyaan

Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (GSLV Mk III)

This is the 25th flight of the Orbital ATK's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 24th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cygnus CRS-2 NG-25

TDS-01 (Technology Demonstration Satellite-01) is an Indian geostationary orbit technology demonstration satellite carrying payloads for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani. 

Payloads to be tested included an internally developed 300 mN electric powered thrusters, atomic clocks, travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) & a quantum communication suite (QuTDS).

PSLV-XL | TDS-01

PSLV XL

Classified payload for the United States Space Force

Falcon Heavy | USSF-75

Kennedy Space Center

Launch Complex 39A

Falcon Heavy

Up to 18 satellites manufactured by MDA for Canadian satellite operator Telesat's Lightspeed constellation.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Telesat Lightspeed 1

Blue Origin

The first mission of Blue Ring, Blue Origin's all-in-one, high-powered hybrid solar electric and chemical propelled spacecraft, will test the spacecraft's operations in Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), as well as subsequent operations after reaching Geostationary Orbit (GEO).

It will carry one of Scout Space's flagship next-generation space domain awareness (SDA) Owl sensors, which is designed to enhance real-time tracking, characterization, and assessment of space objects by integrating advanced optical sensing, onboard artificial intelligence-driven processing, and autonomous decision-making capabilities to deliver domain-wide intelligence in space in support of the U.S. Space Force’s space control mission set.

Blue Ring will also carry Optimum Technologies (OpTech)'s next-generation Caracal optical payload, which is designed to provide actionable insights on resident space objects and orbital activity and includes onboard image storage, object detection algorithms, and passive thermal control. The payload is designed to operate flexibly across dynamic orbits over a year-long mission profile.

Several internal Blue Origin payloads will also be hosted.

New Glenn | Blue Ring-1

Launch Complex 36A

New Glenn

Tranche 1 Transport Layer F is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer F

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Telesat Lightspeed 6

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