Vandenberg Launch Schedule
Upcoming launches out of Vandenberg AFB, California
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Pandora / Twilight rideshare mission
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
January 11, 2026
Status: To Be Confirmed
Mission:
The Pandora small satellite was selected in 2021 as an inaugural mission in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. It includes a 0.45-meter telescope that will improve our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres by disentangling exoplanet signals from their host stars, as well as studying host star variability with long-duration observations of 20 unique planets through visible-light photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy. Also launching on this launch are ride-share payloads under the "Falcon 9 Twilight mission" manifested by Exolaunch, including satellites from Spire Global and Kepler Communications.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit Unknown F9 - Maiden Flight Landing Zone 4
Minotaur IV | STP-S29A
Orbital ATK | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD February, 2026
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
STP-S29A is a mission under the U.S. Department of Defense's Space Test Program (STP) that will deliver technology demonstrations to orbit and contribute to future space system development, with this launch delivering up to 200 kg of STP cubesats to Low Earth Orbit. The main payload will be STPSat-7, an ESPA class satellite based on the Aegis Aerospace M-1 satellite bus used on the STPSat-4 mission for hosting research and technology demonstration payloads for the Department of Defense (DoD). One of the payload is U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Lightsheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument, used to detect and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital debris with lasers in orbit.
Low Earth OrbitFalcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD February, 2026
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance. This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
Polar Orbit
Firefly Alpha | Lockheed Martin Mission 2
Firefly Aerospace | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD March, 2026
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer E
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD March, 2026
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Tranche 1 Transport Layer E is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.
Polar OrbitFalcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer F
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD March, 2026
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Tranche 1 Transport Layer F is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.
Polar OrbitFalcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 16 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD March, 2026
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD March, 2026
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Tranche 1 Transport Layer D is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.
Polar OrbitFalcon 9 Block 5 | Rivada 7
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD June, 2026
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Rivada 8
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD June, 2026
Falcon 9
CSG-3
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USACSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operatin…
Long March 7A
Shijian 29 A-B
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China2 satellites officially described as for "demonstration of new technologies for spatial targets detection" purposes.
Long March 4B
Tianhui 7
Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaA satellite officially described as for cartography purposes, details TBD.
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
AIST-2T 01 & 02
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian FederationA pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, …
Long March 3B/E
Fengyun-4C
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaChina's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.
Long March 8A
SatNet LEO Group 17
Commercial LC-1 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of ChinaA batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
Soyuz 2.1a
Obzor-R No.1
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian FederationNote: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…
LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
BlueBird Block 2 #1
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, IndiaAST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…
Long March 12A
Demo Flight
Long March 12A Pad - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaFirst test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …
HANBIT-Nano
Spaceward
HANBIT Pad - Alcântara Space Center, Federative Republic of BrazilMaiden orbital launch attempt for the South Korean start-up Innospace and its HANBIT-Nano small launch vehicle. Onboard this flight are five small sa…
