CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. — SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a South Korean military satellite from Florida's Space Coast on Monday afternoon.
What You Need To Know
- SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched with South Korean military satellite
- ANASIS-II launch had been delayed once over booster concerns
- Air Force forecasters called for 70% chance of favorable weather
- WATCH: Jump to live stream below ▼
The rocket had been set to blast off last Tuesday, but launch controllers decided they needed more time to look at the second-stage booster.
The Falcon 9, on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, is carrying ANASIS-II, a communications satellite for the South Korean military.
Not much is known about the satellite, as South Korea's government is keeping its purpose under wraps, only saying it will "provide secured communications over wide coverage."
The rocket lifted off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. It was initially scheduled to go up at 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, with a launch wndow lasting until 8:55 p.m. ET, according to the 45th Weather Squadron at the base.
Less than 10 minutes after liftoff, the team's attempt to land the first stage booster on their drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," positioned out in the Atlantic Ocean, was another success. And a first for the Space X team: Both fairing halves were safely caught by their ships on a mission.
The first-stage booster is already the stuff of legends, after launching NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on May 30.
The pair is set to return to Earth August 1, with the first water landing for NASA astronauts since the Apollo-Soyuz mission wrapped up in 1975.
SpaceX also has another launch in the can: A batch of Starlink satellites is due to take off from Kennedy Space Center. There's no new launch date set, but the mission has been delayed twice.