SpaceX on Friday successfully launched a payload of global communications satellites for Iridium, marking the first launch of 2019 for Elon Musk’s California-based company. The mission, transporting 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to orbit, completes the Iridium NEXT project to replace the world’s largest commercial communication satellite network with 75 new ones. Read more to watch the landing video and for additional information.
Approximately 9-minutes after launch, the tall section of the Falcon 9 rocket landed successfully on a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. This Falcon 9 rocket launched the Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite back in September from Florida and then landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic. “There it is, right in the middle of the bullseye,” said SpaceX commentator John Innsbrucker, as live images showed the first stage of the rocket standing upright on the droneship named “Just Read the Instructions.”