Real space travel news today: SpaceX launched the USSF-153 mission for the U.S. Space Force, lifting off from Vandenberg’s SLC-4E aboard a Falcon 9 whose first-stage booster — B1081, on its 27th flight — stuck a precision landing on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” a few minutes later. It’s the fifth national security launch SpaceX has flown this year, and as with most of these missions, almost nothing about the actual payload was disclosed. Somewhere above us right now, satellites are quietly doing Space Force things, and the public will probably never know exactly what.
We find that oddly relatable. Not the “top secret military hardware” part — the “not telling anyone what’s actually happening” part. It’s basically our entire business model, minus the successful orbital insertion and the multimillion-dollar droneship.
Still, there’s something almost reassuring about watching a fully classified mission execute flawlessly: booster down safe, satellites away, no drama, no press conference. It’s a good week for space travel news in general — reusable rockets landing themselves on boats in the ocean is still, objectively, one of the coolest things humans have figured out how to do routinely, even when we’re not allowed to know why.
Meanwhile here at Online Space Tickets, our own manifest remains exactly as classified as the Space Force’s, mostly because it doesn’t exist. We can’t tell you what’s on board because there is no board. But we can tell you that space tourism keeps inching closer to being a real consumer category every time a company like SpaceX quietly nails another landing, and we intend to keep “selling” space tickets right up until the day someone makes us stop.
Until then: wishing you clear skies, a soft droneship landing, and a boarding time we will never, ever confirm.