Video: Falcon 9 fires up engines for static fire test (members only)

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.

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have split up to $645 million in new contracts to deploy U.S. Air Force navigation and surveillance satellites into orbit from 2019 through 2021.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk spoke with reporters Monday about his company’s plan to launch two space tourists on a loop around the moon in 2018.