Videos: SpaceX launches 10 satellites and lands booster stage

Today SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first stage of the rocket also came back down for a landing onto a ocean platform ship. This was the first mission for SpaceX since the explosion on September 1st during a test on a pad at Cape Canaveral.

There will be 6 more F9 launches of Iridium NEXT satellites over the next year and a half or so. The satellites will replace the current set of aging Iridium satellites and provide improved global satellite telephone and data services as well as add new services such as aircraft tracking over the entire world including the oceans.

Here are videos of today’s launch and landing:

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