KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday morning after a series of delays.


What You Need To Know


The engines roared to life from Pad 39A as the rocket disappeared into the low cloud deck; a perfect combo for an early Thursday morning launch at 3:24 a.m. EST.

SpaceX sent up another 60 Starlink satellites for its growing, worldwide broadband internet service, with more than 1,100 of them already in orbit.

Less than 10 minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 first stage booster came back for a landing on SpaceX's drone ship Of Course I Still Love You waiting out in the Atlantic.

It is the eighth launch and landing for this booster.

It was a mission that had been plagued by technical issues for the better part of a month.

The first-launch try was Sunday night but that was aborted with just 1 minute, 24 seconds remaining. Controllers didn't say what prompted the stoppage, only that the payload and rocket "remain in good health."

SpaceX tried other launches on both Monday and Tuesday, but both times the liftoffs were called off due to unfavorable weather.

Hours before in Boca Chica, Texas, that is where the SpaceX team celebrated a milestone with its latest Starship flight.

The prototype became the company's first prototype to launch, flip mid-air and land.

However, the rocket exploded moments after landing. Space X is investigating.​

Re-Watch the Launch