Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

SpaceX launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on Monday after a first stage sensor problem halted a countdown Sunday. Liftoff from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT), and the first stage landed at nearby Cape Canaveral around nine minutes later. The upper stage’s flight entered a pre-planned news blackout a few minutes after launch.

The planned flight came two days after SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt on Wednesday amid fueling. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 10:44 a.m. PST (1:44 p.m. EST / 1844 UTC).

The U.S. Air Force fired a new rail-launched rocket into space from Hawaii at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (0345 GMT Wednesday), but the Super Strypi vehicle failed about a minute after liftoff with 13 satellites on-board.