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How to watch Transporter 18 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)

Thu, Oct 1, 11:18 AM PDT

Thu, Oct 1, 18:18 UTC · launch window 58 minutes

Falcon 9 Block 5 · SpaceX · Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Add this launch to your calendar (.ics) · every launch from Vandenberg

How firm is the date: Go for launch (confirmed by the provider)
Date history: Moved 1 time since we first recorded it (net 0.2 h later).
At the pad when the window opens: Daylight launch. The sun is up at the pad. You see the rocket and its exhaust trail; the engine flame is less vivid than at night, and from far away a day launch can be hard to pick out.

Watch online

Watch in person

Straight-line distance from each place to the Vandenberg pad we use for geometry; what you can see follows from the distance. The public viewing spots, fees and road closures are in the Vandenberg viewing guide.

Santa Barbara54 mi (87 km), look WNW
The whole ascent, low on the horizon.
Los Angeles141 mi (227 km), look WNW
A rising light on the horizon: night launches only.
San Diego238 mi (384 km), look NW
A rising light on the horizon: night launches only.

Vandenberg Space Force Base (official site)

Plan a trip: every Vandenberg launch in your dates

What to expect

We have not checked this mission's landing plan by hand. If a booster flies back to a landing zone on land, its landing brings a sonic boom; the provider's mission page says where the booster lands.
Sound travels about a kilometre every 3 seconds (a mile every 5), so at a distance you see liftoff before you hear it.

Will it go on time?

A launch date is a "no earlier than" target. Weather, a technical hold, the range or a boat in the hazard area can each stop a count on the day, and the provider then names a new time. We do not publish launch odds we cannot back; here is what we recorded.

6 launches have flown from Vandenberg since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026; 5 of them had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 0 slipped by a day or more. That is too few launches to call it a rate.
Of the 27 launches that have flown from every site we track since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026, 16 (59%) had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 3 (11%) slipped by a day or more.

Sources

Launch time, status and pad: the Launch Library 2 manifest as synced by SpaceNexus; times move, and this page follows them.
Day or night: computed from the sun's position at the pad at the time shown. Distances: computed from coordinates.

The launch page: countdown, stream, date history →Every Vandenberg launch this month →Where to watch at Vandenberg →Which launches slip, and by how much →

Weather: 90% GO · winds 4 kt NW · clouds 45% · precip 0% · 66°F · NWS, updated 18:12Z

5 weather constraints · forecast hour 18:00Z

Surface windsGO4 kt NW (limit 25 kt)
LightningGONone risk
Cloud coverGO45% (Partly Sunny)
PrecipitationGO0% chance
VisibilityGO10 mi

NWS wording: "Partly Sunny". Odds method: SpaceNexus constraint heuristic on the NWS hourly forecast (90 all-go / 60 caution / 25 no-go bands). Not the range weather squadron's probability of violation.

Source: NWS hourly forecast (api.weather.gov) · pad coordinates from the launch record · as of Sep 26, 2026 18:12 UTC

Newsletter

Watch online

Watch in person

What to expect

Will it go on time?

Sources