New, longer video hits Internet and shows Falcon’s landing demise

SpaceX hoisted its Falcon 9 rocket upright Sunday evening, hours before launching on a commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. Technicians installed time-sensitive supplies into the Dragon cargo capsule earlier in the day.

SpaceX’s final Falcon 9 launch of the year carried a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency. SpaceX aborted a launch attempt Thursday morning to assess a second stage sensor reading, but the Falcon 9 successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) Saturday. The rocket’s stage landed back at Cape Canaveral eight minutes later.

The Starlink 11-5 mission was the 95th flight in 2025 supporting the low Earth orbit internet constellation. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:16 a.m. PDT (10:16 a.m. EDT / 1416 UTC).