Watch the first SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lift off since a catastrophic launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral in September 2016. The rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on January 14, 2017, was carrying 10 satellites for the Iridium mobile phone and Internet communications company. The Falcon 9 first stage was successfully recovered after landing on a floating platform in the Pacific.
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 succeeds in launch of two high-value communications satellites
A pair of ViaSat and Eutelsat communications satellites — one to broadcast unparalleled high-speed Internet from space, and another to connect the Asia-Pacific — streaked into space Thursday from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket, setting records for the heaviest and most valuable commercial payload ever put into orbit.