Q&A with Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO

While re-entry heating damaged a protective “skirt” around the the engine bay of the upper stage Starship, along with partially melting a control flap near its hinge, the vehicle remained under control throughout and made it all the way to a powered splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned.

These additional views of the Falcon Heavy’s maiden liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, and landing of its two side boosters at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, come from locations across the Florida spaceport.

After scrubbing a launch attempt Friday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday on a mission to send communications satellites from OneWeb and Iridium into polar orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Liftoff occurred at 6:16 a.m. PDT (9:16 a.m. EDT; 1316 UTC).