Photos: Falcon takes flight

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:17:10 a.m. EDT (7:17:10 a.m. PDT; 1417:10 GMT) Wednesday with the Radarsat Constellation Mission for the Canadian government. The Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed back at Vandenberg around eight minutes later.

A top secret payload developed in secrecy for the U.S. government is set to ride into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday.

This was the second out of two planned launches of these spacecraft using a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 6:50 p.m. EDT (2250 UTC).