World News Update: SpaceX launches SDA T1TL-A from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California; Russian strikes kill at least 15 in Zaporizhzhia

Launch: Falcon 9 SDA T1TL-A (after liftoff)

Rocket

SpaceX Falcon 9

Launch site

Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), Vandenberg Space Force Base, California

Time (CT)

Liftoff at 2:39 a.m. CT Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026 (SpaceX: 12:39 a.m. PT; Launch Library 2 T-0 2:39:44 a.m. CT / 07:39:44 UTC). Booster landing at about 2:47 a.m. CT (T+7:32 on SpaceX's mission timeline; SpaceX confirmed the landing on X at 2:48 a.m. CT).

Result

Launch successful; SpaceX said Falcon 9 delivered the 21 satellites to low-Earth orbit and the first stage landed on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg.

Cargo

21 data transport satellites for the U.S. Space Force's Space Development Agency (SDA), the fourth orbital plane of its Tranche 1 Transport Layer, a mesh network of laser-linked satellites for military communications (satellites built by Northrop Grumman, per Launch Library 2).

Booster

B1103, reused, sixth flight (SpaceX: previously flew NROL-179, SDA-T1TL-E and three Starlink missions); landed on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), return to launch site.

Our view Another step toward Mars: landing B1103 back at Vandenberg on its sixth flight is the kind of routine booster reuse SpaceX is building on as it develops Starship to carry people to Mars.

SpaceX's mission page says Falcon 9 launched the Space Development Agency's fourth Tranche 1 data transport mission at 12:39 a.m. PT from SLC-4E, the fourth of nine Tranche 1 missions Falcon 9 will fly for the SDA, and that the first stage landed on LZ-4. Launch Library 2 lists booster B1103 on its sixth flight with a successful landing on Landing Zone 4. SpaceX posted "Liftoff!" at 2:41 a.m. CT and "Falcon 9's first stage lands on LZ-4" at 2:48 a.m. CT. We missed a before-liftoff update for this launch; this is our after-liftoff report.

World news since the 6 AM brief

• Russian glide bombs kill at least 15 in Zaporizhzhia a day after Trump's Russian diesel deal Russian strikes killed at least 15 people, including three children, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region and wounded at least 16, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, the Associated Press reported. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia dropped five glide bombs on residential buildings and called the easing of sanctions on Russian diesel a signal Moscow reads as permission to keep fighting. President Trump said Friday that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, then 500,000 tons in November and more after that. (Associated Press (via The Boston Globe), BBC News)
• Ethiopia tells U.N. Security Council it is acting in self-defense against Eritrea Ethiopia told the U.N. Security Council on Friday it is taking self-defense measures against Eritrea, accusing its neighbor of sending troops across the border and occupying parts of northern Ethiopia, the Associated Press reported. The letter from Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos invoked Article 51 of the U.N. Charter but did not specify the measures or name the occupied areas; the AP said it could not independently verify the claims. Eritrea's information minister accused Ethiopia of aggression over its demands for Red Sea access. (Associated Press (via ABC News))
• Taiwan's Lai urges Indo-Pacific democracies to 'join forces' in National Day speech Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te called on democracies in the Indo-Pacific to "join forces" to keep the region's peace and stability in a National Day speech Saturday, the Associated Press reported. He said Taiwan welcomes U.S.-China dialogue to reduce the risk of conflict, and added: "There must be respect for the right of the people of Taiwan to exist." (Associated Press)

More

Earlier: the 6 AM brief