SpaceX's Classified USSF-432 Launch Slips Again, to Friday Evening From Vandenberg

SpaceX's first Vandenberg launch of November has slipped again. The company is now targeting Friday, November 6 for a Falcon 9 launch of the classified USSF-432 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to SpaceX's official mission page. The four-hour launch window opens at 4:46 p.m. PT.

That is a three-day postponement from the schedule WorldEye reported on November 2, when USSF-432 was working toward a Tuesday, November 3 window opening at 5:28 p.m. PT. The Ventura County Star, which has been tracking the mission for the USA TODAY Network, updated its coverage with the same news: the launch has been postponed to no earlier than 4:46 p.m. PT on Friday, November 6, according to a launch alert.

If Friday does not work, SpaceX says there is a backup opportunity on Saturday, November 7 at 4:32 p.m. PT. A live webcast of the mission will begin about 10 minutes before liftoff, on SpaceX's site and on X @SpaceX. Readers comparing sources may see the launch listed as November 7 at 00:46 UTC — that is the same Friday 4:46 p.m. Pacific window expressed in Coordinated Universal Time, not a different date.

The booster flying this mission is on its eighth flight, having previously launched the GPS III-8 mission and six Starlink missions. After stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, stationed in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX again warns that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, depending on weather and other conditions.

USSF-432 is a mission for the U.S. Space Force, and its payload is classified — SpaceX publishes the launch timeline but not what the Falcon 9 is carrying. The rocket will fly a southeast trajectory from Vandenberg, the Star reported, which is why evening launches from the base can be visible across a wide stretch of Southern California when skies are clear.

The mission is part of a record-setting year for the California base: the state notched a record 72 launches for the year at the end of October, and USSF-432 was set to be the first Vandenberg liftoff of November. The postponement does not change that — it just moves the month's first California launch to Friday evening, in a window that opens shortly before sunset on the coast.

This mission has now moved three times in public: from November 1 to November 2, then to November 3, and now to November 6. Neither SpaceX nor the Star gave a reason for the latest slip, and with classified missions that silence is normal — range availability, vehicle readiness and coastal weather all routinely shift Vandenberg schedules by days, and the base's marine layer is famously uncooperative with evening windows.

The practical lesson is the one the Star itself gives its readers: postponements are common, and anyone planning to watch should check the current schedule on the day, not a listing written earlier in the week — including, now, the November 3 date in our own earlier story, which this update supersedes.

Friday's window opens at 4:46 p.m. PT (00:46 UTC on Saturday), and the webcast starts about ten minutes before liftoff. WorldEye's satellite tracker follows the spacecraft already in orbit that missions like this one join, and the space station tracker keeps the crewed side of the manifest in view while the Vandenberg countdown runs.

If the launch moves again, SpaceX's mission page is the source that will change first. Until then, the plan is fixed: Falcon 9, SLC-4E, Friday evening, a droneship waiting in the Pacific, and a classified payload heading southeast into the dusk.