The U.S. Space Force has awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion in task orders to fly 18 Falcon 9 missions carrying satellites for the Space-Based Sensing and Targeting (SBST) portfolio, the service confirmed on July 29, 2026. All 18 launches will lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California through the end of 2027.
Two task orders under NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1
The missions were awarded as two task orders under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program, the dual-lane structure the Pentagon uses to speed procurement while keeping multiple commercial launch providers in competition. The awards follow the Space Force's July move to triple the Lane 1 ceiling to $17 billion across seven providers, expanding the pool that also includes Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance and Rocket Lab.
Col. Eric Zarybnisky, acting portfolio acquisition executive for Space Access, said the service compressed award timelines to just two months. "Sensing and targeting of airborne objects from space and providing near-real-time communications across the Joint Force are vital to the defense of our nation," he said in the Space Force statement.
Feeding the SBST tracking layer
The Falcon 9 stack will deploy spacecraft into the SBST constellation, a next-generation architecture designed to detect and track airborne threats and relay near-real-time data to warfighters. The tracking layer is a linchpin of the administration's proposed Golden Dome missile-defense architecture and expands SpaceX's already sizable footprint in national security launch after the roughly $6.45 billion in Space Force awards it captured earlier in 2026.
SpaceX cements Vandenberg workload
Concentrating all 18 launches at Vandenberg tightens SpaceX's West Coast manifest at a moment when it is also flying Northrop Grumman's robotic servicing vehicle and preparing further Space Development Agency batches out of the same base. It is also SpaceX's second US government contract in as many days after the Rocket Lab suborbital award underscored how fast the Space Force is pushing missile-defense-adjacent launches.
Reporting based on coverage from Reuters via US News and Interesting Engineering.