The Falcon 9 rocket took off on time at 5:13 a.m., lighting up the early morning sky as it flew on a southeast trajectory. Just over eight minutes later, the well-traveled Falcon 9 first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, which was waiting in the Atlantic Ocean.

A SpaceX rocket set for launch Wednesday evening from the Southern California coast will carry 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. The four-hour launch window at Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Santa Barbara is scheduled to open at 4:06 p.