SpaceX readies USSF-385 launch as NASA awards $946 million contract and plans Starship Flight 14

SPCX prepared to launch the USSF-385 mission, a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force, on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on September 26, 2026. Payload details remain classified. It follows USSF-153 on September 10 and USSF-259 on September 16, making it SpaceX's third Space Force flight in 16 days.

The launch comes a week after a larger contract win. On September 18, Reuters reported that NASA awarded SpaceX a $946 million contract modification for three more crewed missions to the International Space Station, extending the company's astronaut flights through 2030 and raising the total contract value to $5.92 billion across 17 flights. The award builds on a role SpaceX has held since NASA approved it for astronaut flights in November 2020. The same piece flags limits: the ISS retirement gives the crew-transport business a defined endpoint around 2030, and NASA has reportedly discussed assigning Boeing's Starliner 10 or more future missions.

SpaceX is also preparing Starship Flight 14, which Investor's Business Daily billed as a "milestone" flight. Public reporting describes it as targeting as soon as September 28 with a planned deployment of Starlink V3 satellites. The headline's pairing with updated NASA ISS mission timing could not be confirmed from the article's text.

Separately, an analyst piece argues that Falcon 9 capacity is increasingly consumed by Starlink, approximately 79% of it, and that SpaceX has stopped selling new shared Falcon 9 missions, which could benefit RKLB. The same piece notes Rocket Lab's backlog reached $2.36 billion, while cautioning that the window for an end-of-2026 Neutron launch is narrowing.

What to watch: the USSF-385 outcome, the Starship Flight 14 launch date, and any NASA decision on Starliner's future crew assignments.