SpaceX’s tenth launch of the year took off Tuesday from California’s Central Coast on a unique ridehsare mission to add satellites to Iridium’s communications network and replace two Earth science satellites which ended their observations last year.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 12:47:58 p.m. PDT (3:47:58 p.m. EDT; 1947:58 GMT), using a first stage booster first flown Jan. 7 with the U.S. government’s mysterious Zuma mission.
Riding 1.7 million pounds of thrust, the Falcon 9 soared to the south from Vandenberg with five commercial Iridium messaging satellites and two follow-on satellites to the joint U.S.-German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.
See our Mission Status Center for details on the flight.
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