Delta-V Society

—:—:— MST

Vandenberg SFB · SLC-4E · Falcon 9 Block 5

The Delta-V Society

USSF-432

Get really high and watch the launch.

Holding the clock

T−
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hrs
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min
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sec

Planned liftoff 5:48 PM MST. Window open 5:46 PM through 9:46 PM MST. Backup Saturday 1:46–5:46 AM MST. If the range slips, this clock still runs from the planned instant.

Tuning the X player

Watch live on XSpaceX webcastYouTube stream

The player loads from X. If it stays quiet in this frame, the broadcast button opens it directly.

Mission intel

USSF-432, also known as R-4

Classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites for the Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio, built on SpaceX’s Starshield bus. The drop zones line up with earlier Starlink Group 15 flights. That is the tell. The manifest is not.

  • 702

    Falcon 9 mission

    119th of 2026

  • 735

    SpaceX mission

    125th of 2026

  • 259

    Orbital attempt

    Worldwide, 2026

Customer

United States Space Force

Destination
Low Earth Orbit
Alias
R-4
Official manifest
Not released
Inferred bus
Starshield
Inferred role
SBST / SB-AMTI

Booster

B1095 · Flight 8

Turnaround
200 days
Prior work
GPS III-8 + 6 Starlink
Landing
Of Course I Still Love You
Ocean
Pacific, off Baja
Recovery attempt
694th

Rocket

Falcon 9 Block 5

Active since
2018
Price
$74 million
Liftoff thrust
7,607 kN
Diameter
3.7 m
Height
70 m
Fairing
5.2 m × 13 m
Payload LEO
22,800 kg
Payload GTO
8,300 kg
Stages
2
Agency
SpaceX

Launch site

SLC-4E

Range
Vandenberg SFB
Place
California, USA
Trajectory
Southeast
Pad
Space Launch Complex 4 East

A sonic boom is possible in parts of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties. What you hear depends on the weather.

Payload dossier

Under the fairing

SpaceX and the Space Force have not named the spacecraft, the count, the altitude, or a deployment time. The public record is the pattern around the blank.

Confirmed

  • Public designation USSF-432. Also written R-4.
  • Customer is the United States Space Force. Destination class is low Earth orbit.
  • The Space Force has declined to describe these missions.
  • The published timeline stops at booster landing. There is no public deployment call.

Inferred

  • Jonathan McDowell places the R satellites in Space Based Sensing and Targeting.
  • Next Spaceflight: drop zones match Starlink Group 15, which points at a Starshield batch. Starshield is the government Starlink bus.
  • Catalogs show 23 objects from each earlier R flight. Tonight’s count is not in yet.
  • The open SB-AMTI program these flights are tied to is space radar for aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles. Sensors are described as government-furnished.

Still withheld

  • Exact number on this rocket.
  • Mass, size, altitude, and inclination.
  • Radar band, power, and how good the track is.
  • When the fairing’s cargo actually lets go.

The R line

Four flights, one blank manifest

Spaceflight Now’s account of the series: R-1 through R-3 each left 23 cataloged satellites. R-4 is the same paperwork trail. If that count holds, the R line reaches 92 objects tonight. That is a pattern, not a manifest.

  • R-1USSF-36616 Aug 202623 cataloged
  • R-2USSF-15310 Sep 202623 cataloged
  • R-3USSF-38526 Sep 202623 cataloged
  • R-4USSF-4326 Nov 2026This launch

A parallel SBST line, tagged TH rather than R, has flown smaller stacks: TH-1 on 17 Sep 2026 and TH-2 on 16 Oct 2026, 17 cataloged objects each. Same family, different batch size. Do not fold those 17s into the R-4 guess.

What the program says it is for

On 29 May 2026 Space Systems Command awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion Other Transaction for Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indication. The public aim is a sensing layer that watches airborne targets from orbit, where patrol aircraft are easier to push out.

SSC calls it a system of systems: space sensors, secure links, and ground processing. Col. Ryan Frazier, acting acquisition lead for Space Based Sensing and Targeting, has described it as the layer that keeps sensors and shooters connected. An initial constellation is aimed at 2028.

A separate $2.29 billion award, the Space Data Network backbone, is a communications mesh. USSF-432 is tracked with the sensing flights, not that backbone.

The bus, not the secret

Starshield is SpaceX’s government cousin of Starlink: a flat bus, deployable solar arrays, harder encryption, and room for a hosted payload. Catalogued Starshields are not one satellite. Masses and inclinations change with the customer.

Nothing in that catalogue is a measurement of tonight’s stack. Treat “about 23 Starshields with government radar” as the best open guess, and treat every performance number as classified until the Space Force says otherwise.

Sources in the open: Spaceflight Now, Next Spaceflight drop zones, Jonathan McDowell on the R series, SSC’s 29 May 2026 SB-AMTI announcement, and post-flight orbital catalogues for R-1 through R-3.

Flight timeline

Southeast, then the ship

Max Q near a minute. MECO just after two and a half. Booster back on Of Course I Still Love You around eight and a half. The upper stage keeps going.

Holding · T+0:00 · On the pad

PACIFICSLC-4EOCISLYLEO

Approximate burns only. Stage 1 is the amber arc to the droneship. Stage 2 is the violet arc toward orbit. The real 3D passes live on NextLiftoff and Flight Club.

NextLiftoff 3DFlight Club

  1. Max Q

    T+1:07

    Maximum dynamic pressure

  2. MECO

    T+2:26

    Main engine cutoff

  3. Stage sep

    T+2:29

    First stage separates

  4. SES-1

    T+2:36

    Second engine start

  5. Fairing

    T+2:55

    Payload fairing separation

  6. Entry burn

    T+6:06

    Starts, through T+6:30

  7. Entry end

    T+6:30

    Entry burn complete

  8. Landing burn

    T+8:04

    Booster landing burn

  9. Touchdown

    T+8:26

    Of Course I Still Love You

The Society

Get high. Get the delta-v.

The Delta-V Society keeps one ritual: get really high, and watch something leave the planet. Tonight that something is an American rocket off the California coast.

Twenty-four states and D.C. have recreational cannabis. Medical access reaches forty-one. In 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis moved toward federal Schedule III, while adult-use is still federally restricted. Imperfect. Freer than it was. Enough of a reason to look up.

Watching the American rocket while the American plant is freer than ever.