Falcon 9 abort seen from press site

Leading all other nations, U.S. launch providers flew 44 missions in 2020 that aimed to place payloads in Earth orbit or deep space, with 40 successes. China followed with 35 successful orbital missions in 39 launch attempts.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:45 p.m. EST Thursday (0145 GMT Friday) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The commercial launcher, featuring a reused first stage booster flying for the third time, hauled into orbit Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu communications satellite, the Beresheet lunar lander for SpaceIL, and the S5 space surveillance payload for the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Watch a Falcon 9 rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral on December 8, 2010, at 10:43 a.m. EST (1543 GMT) on the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) Demo Flight 1. It was the first test flight of the Dragon cargo ship.