Live coverage: Falcon 9 soars into space with DSCOVR

A Japanese communications satellite rode a Falcon 9 rocket into space from Cape Canaveral early Friday, reaching an on-target orbit as the launcher’s first stage booster nailed a high-speed landing on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, logging another achievement for SpaceX’s cost-cutting reuse initiative.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his red Tesla Roadster will head for deep space on the maiden flight of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as next month, and do it to the tune of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

Watch a replay of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket taking off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite, as viewed from the press viewing site around three miles away.