SpaceX's Classified USSF-432 Launch From Vandenberg Moves to Tuesday Evening

California's next rocket launch has moved by a day — again. SpaceX's USSF-432 mission, a classified satellite deployment for the U.S. Space Force, is now scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, in a four-hour launch window opening at 5:28 p.m. PT and running to 9:28 p.m. PT, according to the Ventura County Star's November 2 rundown of the Vandenberg schedule — the only California launch currently on the board for the week ahead.

The mission has been walking down the calendar. SpaceX had earlier listed it for Sunday, November 1, then for Monday, November 2, with a four-hour window opening at 5:42 p.m. PT and the Tuesday slot held as the backup opportunity. As of November 2, the backup has become the plan: Tuesday evening, 14 minutes earlier than Monday's window would have opened.

USSF-432 is a national-security launch, and SpaceX has released no details about the payload or the orbit it will be deployed into. That silence is normal for this class of mission. What SpaceX has published is the rocket's pedigree: the Falcon 9 first-stage booster flies for the eighth time on this mission, having previously launched the GPS III-8 satellite and six Starlink missions.

After stage separation, the booster is planned to land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX also notes that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch — a familiar signature of Vandenberg's evening departures for everyone living under the flight path.

USSF-432 is not the only change on Vandenberg's board. A Starlink satellite deployment that SpaceX's calendar had listed in recent days — and that still appears on a Federal Aviation Administration planning advisory — appears to have fallen off the schedule as of November 2, the Ventura County Star reports, as SpaceX works toward another flight test of its Starship rocket in Texas. A further Vandenberg Starlink mission, carrying 27 satellites, has been listed for later in the week, though its timing has shifted with the rest of the calendar.

The cadence behind all this shuffling is real: USSF-432 comes two weeks after Falcon 9 launched the previous classified Space Force mission, USSF-481, from California on October 16, and days after the Halloween-eve Starlink flight that became the 700th Falcon 9 launch. Classified missions are now a routine part of Vandenberg's rhythm, not exceptions to it.

Because the payload is classified, the public picture of USSF-432 will be assembled from the outside: the launch itself, visible across the Southern California coast on a clear evening, the booster's droneship landing, and the satellites' appearance in orbit afterwards. New objects from a Vandenberg launch typically show up in public tracking catalogues within days, which is where WorldEye's satellite tracker picks the story up — the same sky that the space station tracker watches for the ISS.

Launch schedules at this cadence change often, and SpaceX had not publicly explained either of this mission's one-day slips. If you are planning to watch from the California coast, check SpaceX's launch page on Tuesday before you drive: the window is four hours long, but the rocket only needs one clear minute inside it.