Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from California, lands in Pacific

NASA has selected SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to deliver to orbit a joint U.S.-European oceanography mission and the next land imaging satellite in the Landsat series on Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 rockets.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another flock of 60 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast at 11:31 a.m. EDT (1531 GMT) Saturday. The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage landed successfully on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA has ordered four additional launches to deliver cargo to the International Space Station in 2017 — three from SpaceX and one from Orbital ATK — to cover the research lab’s logistics needs until a new set of resupply contracts take effect.