CLOSE SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was carrying the National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-76 mission. USA TODAY 
 
 A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 7:15 a.m. ET Monday, May 1, 2017. The rocket is carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission. (Photo: Craig Bailey, Florida Today) 
 
 CAPE CANAVERAL — SpaceX sent a classified U.S. spy agency mission on its way to orbit Monday morning, then brought the rocket’s first stage home for a landing, possibly to fly again. 
 
 A 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 7:15 a.m. ET, thundering northeast over the Atlantic Ocean with a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office mission labeled NROL-76. 
 
 The flight appeared to be off to a good start, but SpaceX cut off its launch broadcast a few minutes into the flight to help preserve its secrecy, as is standard practice during NRO missions. 
 
 Related: Sensor issue forces scrub of SpaceX Falcon 9 NRO intelligence launch 
 
 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that the mission launched successfully after nearly being scrubbed by strong high-altitude winds. 
 
 “Launch and landing of the NRO spy satellite was good,” he said about 20 minutes after liftoff. “Tough call, as high altitude wind shear was at 98.6% of the theoretical load limit.” 
 
 While coverage of the mission’s climb to space ended early, cameras showed spectacular footage of the 15-story Falcon booster flipping around and firing several engines to fly back to a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, several miles south of the launch site. 
 
 Dropping from more than 80 miles up, where camera views showed the blackness of space curvature of Earth, the stage deployed stabilizing fins and fired several engines again to slow its descent. 
 
 Falcon 9 first stage has landed at LZ-1 https://t.co/gtC39uBC7zpic.twitter.com/766RxdZ99X — SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 1, 2017 
 
 Four legs snapped out from the base of the rocket, which completed a final single-engine burn before a touchdown at “Landing Zone 1” announced with a flurry of sonic booms that rippled across the region. 
 
 SpaceX has now reached double-digits in rocket landings that started in late 2015, recovering the first stage of a Falcon for the 10th time — four on land and six on a barge at sea. 
 
 Related: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, lands in historic first 
 
 In March, SpaceX successfully re-launched a used booster — or “flight proven,” in SpaceX terminology — for the first time for a commercial satellite mission. More reflights are possible this year, and SpaceX has leased a Port Canaveral facility to accommodate what Musk has said is a growing "forest of rocket boosters." 
 
 Musk believes reusable rockets are the key to drastically cutting launch costs, eventually making it possible to fulfill his vision of colonizing Mars. 
 
 Monday’s launch, after a sensor problem scrubbed a first try Sunday, was SpaceX’s first dedicated mission for the NRO, the intelligence agency responsible for satellites. 
 
 The NRO confirmed the mission was ordered as part of a satellite deal with Colorado-based Ball Aerospace, according to SpaceflightNow.com. 
 
 That information, combined with knowledge of the Falcon 9 rocket’s performance and trajectory, prompted amateur satellite observers experienced in tracking NRO missions to speculate that the mission might be an imaging satellite, bound for a low-Earth orbit inclined 50 to 60 degrees relative to the equator. 
 
 The mission patch, according to the National Reconnaissance Office, depicted Lewis and Clark peering through a spyglass and holding a musket, "heading into the great unknown to discover and explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory." 
 
 Stuck the landing! Great job team! pic.twitter.com/mS09TvJsv9 — 45th Space Wing (@45thSpaceWing) May 1, 2017 
 
 If the speculation is correct, the satellite could be a replacement or successor to one launched in 2006 that failed immediately after reaching orbit. 
 
 That mission became a controversial one when the government chose to shoot down the satellite with a Navy missile in 2008, saying it posed a risk of releasing a large amount of highly toxic fuel during an uncontrolled re-entry. 
 
 The launch was SpaceX’s fifth this year, continuing its rebound from a launch pad rocket explosion last summer that grounded the company for the last four months of 2016. 
 
 Another Falcon 9 is being prepared to launch a commercial satellite from Kennedy Space Center as soon as May 15. 
 
 Follow James Dean on Twitter: @flatoday_jdean 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/05/01/spacex-falcon-9-launch/308176001/ ||||| The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lands at historic Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015. The rocket, carrying 11 communications satellites for Orbcomm, Inc., is... (Associated Press) 
 
 SpaceX sent a Falcon rocket soaring toward orbit Monday night with 11 small satellites, its first mission since an accident last summer. Then in an even more astounding feat, it landed the 15-story leftover booster back on Earth safely. 
 
 It was the first time an unmanned rocket returned to land vertically at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and represented a tremendous success for SpaceX. The company led by billionaire Elon Musk is striving for reusability to drive launch costs down and open up space to more people. 
 
 "Welcome back, baby!" Musk tweeted after touchdown. 
 
 "It's a revolutionary moment," Musk later told reporters. "No one has ever brought a booster, an orbital-class booster, back intact." 
 
 What's significant is that this was a useful mission, Musk noted, not merely a practice flight. "We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that actually deployed 11 satellites," he said. 
 
 SpaceX employees broke into cheers and chants, some of them jumping up and down, following the smooth touchdown nine minutes after liftoff. Previous landing attempts ended in fiery blasts, but those aimed for an ocean platform. 
 
 Musk said he ran outside and heard the sonic boom of the returning booster just as it landed; he assumed it had exploded. He learned the happy truth when he went back into Launch Control and saw video of the standing rocket. 
 
 "I can't quite believe it," he said. "It's quite shocking." 
 
 Musk said the landing appeared close to perfect and the company "could not have asked for a better mission or a better day." 
 
 The top officer at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, noted that the returning booster "placed the exclamation mark on 2015." 
 
 "This was a first for us at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and I can't even begin to describe the excitement the team feels right now having been a part of this historic first-stage rocket landing," Monteith said in a statement. 
 
 Across the country, SpaceX employees jammed company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, anxiously awaiting success. They cheered at full throttle when the first stage separated cleanly two minutes into flight and reoriented itself for an unprecedented return to Cape Canaveral. Then the roar became deafening, as TV cameras showed the first-stage booster landing on extended legs at its new, dedicated landing zone. SpaceX commentators called it "incredibly exciting" and were visibly moved by the feat. 
 
 "This has been a wildly successful return to flight for SpaceX," said one SpaceX launch commentator. "We made history today." 
 
 Blue Origin, another billionaire's rocket company, successfully landed a booster last month in West Texas. That rocket, though, had been used for a suborbital flight. The SpaceX booster was more powerful and flying faster in order to put satellites into orbit. 
 
 The touchdown was a secondary objective for SpaceX. The first was hoisting the satellites for OrbComm, a New Jersey-based communication company. All 11 were successfully deployed. 
 
 OrbComm chief executive officer Marc Eisenberg seemed just as excited about the booster landing as his satellites reaching orbit. 
 
 "Here she comes back," Eisenberg said via Twitter, sharing a photo of the returning booster. Then: "Bullseye." 
 
 The booster-landing zone, a former Atlas missile-launching site, is about six miles from the launch pad. SpaceX is leasing the touchdown area — marked by a giant X — from the Air Force. The reinforced concrete provides a stable surface, unlike the barges used for the initial attempts, primarily for increased safety. 
 
 On its previous flight back in June, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket failed shortly after liftoff, destroying a supply ship intended for the International Space Station. A snapped strut in the upper stage was to blame. SpaceX spent months correcting the problem and improving the unmanned rocket. It hopes to resume supply runs for NASA in February. 
 
 Musk, who also runs the Tesla electric car company, said he can drastically reduce launch costs by reusing rocket parts. Three tries at vertical landings of the first-stage boosters earlier this year failed; in each case, the segment aimed for a modified barge off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. This time, Musk opted for a true land landing. 
 
 Musk said it will take a few more years to iron everything out, for actual reusability of his rockets. In the meantime, he's working to transform the SpaceX Dragon capsules from cargo ships into real spaceships for crews traveling to and from the orbiting station. 
 
 His ultimate goal, for human missions, is Mars. 
 
 "This was a critical step along the way to being able to establish a city on Mars," he said. "That's what all this is about." 
 
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 SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/
– SpaceX had a big morning: It successfully launched its first government satellite and got its rocket to return safely to Earth to boot. The company sent up the spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:15am from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, reports USA Today. Nine minutes later, the rocket returned to Cape Canaveral. Details of the spy satellite's mission are classified, reports Space.com, which adds that about the only thing known is that it will be in a low-Earth orbit. The Orlando Sentinel sees Monday's launch as a milestone because SpaceX has previously focused on cargo missions to the International Space Station or commercial telecom satellites. The launch of a government payload, then, marks the start of a new era of competition between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, which had cornered the market on government launches in recent years.