Drone’s view of Sunday’s SpaceX rocket landing

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired into space from Florida’s Atlantic coastline Monday with a clandestine payload for a U.S. government spy agency, then returned to Cape Canaveral for a pinpoint landing.

A barge and command ship chartered by SpaceX are stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s East Coast in a bid to recover a used-up Falcon 9 rocket stage Tuesday in a long-theorized — but never tried — maneuver that could lay the groundwork for a big advance in space technology.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a rideshare mission to low Earth orbit with a multitude of small payloads. The Transporter-9 mission lifted off into a clear blue sky at 10:49 a.m. PST (18:49 UTC).