Photos: Falcon takes flight

A SpaceX launch set for Nov. 11 will mark the first Falcon 9 mission to use a payload fairing from a previous flight, the company announced Tuesday, shortly after SpaceX engineers at Cape Canaveral test-fired the mission’s first stage booster, also refurbished and reused.

Canada’s three new Radarsat Earth observation satellites were encapsulated inside the payload fairing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ahead of their liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

SpaceX plans to set up landing pads on abandoned launch sites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base in a step toward the company’s vision for eventual recovery and reuse of rocket boosters.