How to watch USSF-xxx ("R-5")

Watch online

• Watch on SpaceX.com
• Watch on X (@SpaceX)
• Countdown and stream on SpaceNexus
• Everything live now

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 We do not publish launch odds we cannot back; here is what we recorded.

• Of the 12 launches that have flown from Vandenberg since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026, 11 (92%) had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 2 (17%) slipped by a day or more.
• Of the 47 launches that have flown from every site we track since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026, 31 (66%) had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 9 (19%) slipped by a day or more.