The American company SpaceX has successfully placed 10 satellites for a communications company into orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket carried a batch of new satellites for Iridium Communications, which is replacing its orbiting fleet with a next generation constellation of satellites.
About eight minutes after launching from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the rocket's first-stage booster returned to Earth. It landed on a floating platform on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, while the rocket's second stage continued to carry the satellites toward orbit.
The liftoff happened two days after the company successfully launched a satellite from Florida. SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California.