Soon after lifting off from a military site close to San Luis Obispo on Thursday evening, a SpaceX rocket could be seen speeding through the Coachella Valley sky.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 satellites was expected to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base at roughly 6:15 p.m., according to the website Space.com.
Reach and Deploy the Satellites
About 15 minutes after launch, the portion of the rocket carrying the satellites was supposed to reach orbit and deploy the satellites.
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About nine minutes after launch, another component of the rocket was planned to come down to Earth and touch down on a ship in the Pacific Ocean.
Image Above of the Rocket
The Desert Sun’s Jay Calderon, a photographer for the Desert Sun, acquired the image above of the rocket soaring over the evening sky.
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Several tweets from the SpaceX Twitter account confirmed that the satellites had been successfully placed in orbit and that the launch had gone as planned.