World News Update: SpaceX launches USSF-481 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California; Bend school shooting kills 3 children and a teacher

Launch: Falcon 9 USSF-481 (after liftoff)

Rocket

SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 / USSF-481 (U.S. Space Force)

Launch site

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

Time (CT)

Liftoff at 7:01 p.m. CT Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026 (5:01 p.m. PT; Launch Library 2 T-0 7:01:05 p.m. CT / 00:01:05 UTC Friday; LL2 update "Liftoff." at 00:01:00Z). Booster landing at about 7:09 p.m. CT (SpaceX post-launch timeline: 1st stage lands on OCISLY at T+00:08:23).

Result

Launch successful; SpaceX said Falcon 9 lofted the USSF-481 mission and the first stage landed on the Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) droneship in the Pacific. Launch Library 2 lists landing.success=True with description that Falcon 9 first stage B1081 landed on ASDS OCISLY after its 28th flight. SpaceX has not publicly detailed payload deployment.

Cargo

Classified national-security payload; details not released

Booster

B1081, reused, 28th flight (SpaceX; Launch Library 2). Previous missions include Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, TRACERS, USSF-153 and 16 Starlink missions. Landed successfully on Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) in the Pacific Ocean.

Our view Another step toward Mars: putting B1081 back on a droneship on its 28th flight is the kind of routine reusable cadence SpaceX is building toward Starship flights that will eventually carry people to Mars.

SpaceX's USSF-481 mission page covers the Vandenberg launch; Launch Library 2 records T-0 at 00:01:05 UTC Friday (7:01:05 p.m. CT Thursday), a Liftoff update at 00:01:00Z, and a successful OCISLY landing for B1081 after its 28th flight. SpaceX's post-launch timeline lists first-stage landing on OCISLY at T+00:08:23 (about 7:09 p.m. CT).

Before liftoff: our earlier World News Update on USSF-481

World news since the Vandenberg window

• Bend police: shooter kills three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary; gunman also dead Four people — a 5-year-old, an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old and a teacher — were killed Thursday in a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said, the Washington Examiner reported. The 16-year-old gunman was killed after a member of the community followed him into the school and shot him; a 7-year-old and a 54-year-old teacher were hospitalized with critical injuries. KPTV, citing police, said five people died counting the shooter, and that the first 911 call came about 12:59 p.m. local time after a driver reported being shot at with a long rifle before the gunman entered the school. The Associated Press also reported three children and a teacher were killed and that a person at the scene pursued the shooter into the school. (Washington Examiner, KPTV, Associated Press)
• Ukraine nearly out of Patriot interceptors as Russia ramps up ballistic missile strikes Ukraine has nearly depleted its stock of interceptors for U.S.-made Patriot air defenses just as Russia increases ballistic missile attacks, the New York Post reported Thursday, citing a CNN source who said "almost all the ballistic missiles from the last strike were not intercepted due to lack of the (interceptor) missiles." That strike hit a Ukrainian power plant and killed four people in Kyiv despite President Trump's announced energy ceasefire. Zelenskyy has sought licenses to manufacture Patriot interceptors in Ukraine; the Post, citing CNN, said the license deal does not appear to have come through. (New York Post)
• Justice Department sues California over more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens on voter rolls The Trump administration sued California on Thursday after the state failed to review a federal list of more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens allegedly registered to vote ahead of next month's midterms, the New York Post reported. Los Angeles First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said California election officials "were given an opportunity to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and to sequester ballots returned from suspected ineligible voters" and "refused," adding, "We are taking California to federal court to demand that the votes of American citizens not be diluted by noncitizens." Gov. Gavin Newsom called the suit a "desperate attempt" to suppress California voters. (New York Post)

Earlier: the 5 PM Evening Update