An early Monday morning Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base also will mark the month’s second landing at the Central Coast installation. 

Liftoff of the SpaceX rocket will occur at 1:17 a.m. Monday from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base. If needed, the team has a backup opportunity at 1:08 a.m. Tuesday.

Seven minutes later, the first-stage booster, after completing its portion of the flight, will return to Vandenberg to land, possibly sparking sonic booms. This will be the booster’s sixth launch and landing. 

Those sonic booms could be audible in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

The reason for the rocket launch, and specific liftoff time, stems from the mission: delivery of the fourth set of satellites for the military’s newest missile warning and tracking system.

The series of data transport satellites over multiple launches must be placed into six orbital planes, or areas of space. 

“They need to be distributed properly across the Earth from a distance perspective, to make sure that we can get the coverage that we need from a global coverage perspective,” said Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, Space Development Agency director and Space Force’s missile warning and tracking portfolio acquisition executive.

“It’s the timing of getting into the plane or the right ground coverage areas is why we have at this time,” he added. 

SDA is leading the campaign for what’s been dubbed Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

SDA described it as “a mesh network of optically connected satellites in low-Earth orbit that enable global military tactical communications and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.”

The system involves deploying multiple smaller satellites faster instead of the traditional approach of one larger, more complex spacecraft every few years.  

For this mission, the fourth under the Tranche 1 series, Falcon 9 will deliver 21 data transport satellites.

SDA’s system involved multiple vendors so earlier launches carried York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin Corp. satellites in late 2025. 

Following a strategic pause due to some technical and logistical glitches, SDA and Vandenberg resumed Tranche 1 launches in July.

The agency’s leaders paused launches to resolve hardware and software issues before continuing to the build the constellation. By the end of Tranche 2, they expect to have 400 satellites in orbit. 

“That’s a large number so we need to be able make sure we can predict the performance; we can understand the capability of the system so that pause was to make sure those things are aligned,” Sandhoo said. 

Monday’s mission will carry 21 Northrop Grumman Corp. satellites for the data transport portion of the system. 

SDA has six more launches for Tranche 1— two for data transport and four to fulfill the missile-tracking mission.

“The goal here to is build out this mesh on the data transport side, and then once we start launching our sensors, in our tracking layer, this is what they’ll connect to deliver that missile warning, tracking and defense data to the warfighter,” Sandhoo said. 

A live webcast of the mission is scheduled to begin about 10 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com/launches and on X @SpaceX.

To watch the liftoff and landing in person, the Lompoc Valley has multiple locations offering views of the launch pad. Those include the peak of Harris Grade Road, west of Lompoc’s city limits and around Vandenberg Village, including near the intersection of Moonglow and Stardust roads. 

SpaceX plans an additional Falcon rocket liftoff from Vandenberg for a Starlink mission with a droneship landing Oct. 10. Vandenberg also may conduct a missile test early on Oct. 9.

Launches can get delayed for a number of reasons including technical troubles with the rocket, payload or support equipment; unfavorable weather; and scheduling issues.