The partnership between SpaceX and the U.S. Space Force has been essential to the United States’ quest for space superiority.
On Saturday, that partnership continued when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force, was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The launch was part of Space Force’s USSF-385 mission, but details regarding that mission have been classified.
SpaceX reported residents in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may have heard a sonic boom from the launch.
Per KTLA:
SpaceX launched a mysterious, classified U.S. Space Force mission from California Saturday morning, with little publicly known about what was sent into orbit or where it was headed.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the USSF-385 mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s Central Coast at 7 a.m.
The mission’s payloads, their activities and even their exact destination are classified, according to Space.com.
SpaceX also cut off its launch webcast shortly after the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster returned to Earth. The company typically ends broadcasts early during national security missions rather than showing the deployment of classified payloads, Space.com reported.
WATCH:
$SPCX just launched USSF-385 on B1100 which is the 100th Falcon 9 Block 5 booster SpaceX has built.
The mission is carrying a classified Space Force payload but the thick fog at Vandenberg made the launch clip look incredible.
pic.twitter.com/xLSURuoXmr— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) September 26, 2026
The launch comes two weeks after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed the U.S. military has weapons in space.
Meink made the announcement during the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference held in Maryland.
The Air Force Secretary stated that the U.S. has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
In response to Meink’s announcement, both Russia and China warned the U.S. that space is no place for a “battlefield.”
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