SpaceX Returns to Flight with 10-Satellite Launch, Rocket Landing [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Space.com

SpaceX Returns to Flight with 10-Satellite Launch, Rocket Landing

By Mike Wall and Calla Cofield, Space.com writers | January 14, 2017 01:05pm ET

This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT).

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — SpaceX launched 10 satellites to orbit today (Jan. 14) in a rousing return-to-flight mission that also included a rocket landing on a ship at sea.

SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a launch pad just a few hundred meters from the scenic California coastline here today at 12:54 p.m. EST (1754 GMT; 9:54 a.m. local California time), carrying 10 communications satellites to low-Earth orbit for the Virginia-based company Iridium. After a week of heavy rain and strong winds, only a few clouds obscured the view of the rocket as it climbed skyward.

Deployment of the satellites began 59 minutes after liftoff and took about 15 minutes, SpaceX representatives said.

This success was critically important to SpaceX, which is bouncing back from a Sept. 1 launch pad explosion that destroyed a Falcon 9 and its payload, the $200 million Amos-6 communications satellite. The company had been grounded until today, as it investigated the accident and worked to ensure that something similar doesn't happen again.

Rocket landing, too

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Read more: http://www.space.com/35338-spacex-return-to-flight-rocket-launch-landing-success.html