In the quiet hours of a Tuesday evening on California's central coast, a Falcon 9 rocket stood down from its attempt to carry a classified payload into orbit for the US Space Force, deferring to Wednesday what the day could not deliver. The mission, designated USSF-259, is the second such classified launch attempted in under a week — a rhythm that speaks to a deeper transformation in how a nation now tends to its interests beyond the atmosphere. Where space was once the domain of singular, monumental missions, it has become something more like infrastructure: maintained through repetition, res