SpaceX completed its first ever Falcon 9 launch on the West Coast on Sunday night, carrying the satellite SAOCOM 1A into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 booster stage landed safely only 8 minutes after taking off, lighting up the sky in a dazzling flurry that captured the attention of onlookers on the ground. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to laud his company's efforts, in what's become something of a routine for the outspoken billionaire. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Falcon has landed pic.twitter.com/joqphUs1AO — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2018 Los Angeles residents were similarly impressed by the rocket's ascent. They shared additional breathtaking images: This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Nope, definitely not aliens. What you’re looking at is the first launch and landing of the @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the West Coast. The rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:21 p.m. and landed safely back on Earth. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/8AKjGptpps — MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) October 8, 2018 This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. The satellite from Argentina's space agency CONAE will track natural disasters and measure soil yields across the world. The launch marks a happier moment for Musk, who has recently been swept up in myriad controversies stemming from his professional and public conduct. Earlier this month, he suggested on Twitter that he would take his car company Tesla private for $420 a share. The tweet earned him a $20 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and saw him removed as chairman from the electric carmaker's board. He is still the company's chief executive. You can watch a replay of the launch courtesy of SpaceX below: This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Source: SpaceX This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>Update for 10:39 pm EDT: SpaceX successfully launched the SAOCOM-1A satellite and landed its Falcon 9 booster on a new landing pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, the first-ever West Coast landing for the rocket. Read our full story here. Preview story: SpaceX will loft an Earth-observation satellite and attempt its first-ever rocket landing on California soil tonight (Oct. 7), and you can watch all the action live. A two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped by Argentina's SAOCOM-1A satellite is scheduled to launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 10:21 p.m. EDT (7:21 p.m. local California time; 0221 GMT on Oct. 8). If all goes according to plan, less than 9 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earth safely at SpaceX's "Landing Zone 4" facility at Vandenberg. You can watch the launch live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via SpaceX. Coverage will start about 20 minutes before liftoff. "Sonic boom warning," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter Saturday "This won't be subtle." [Inside SpaceX's Epic Fly-Back Reusable Rocket Landings (Infographic)] SpaceX has landed more than two dozen Falcon 9 first stages, but this would be the first to touch down on the West Coast. The other landings have occurred at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, or on robotic "drone ships" stationed in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The first stage flying tonight has one drone-ship landing under its belt: On July 25, it touched down in the Pacific on SpaceX's "Just Read the Instructions" vessel, shortly after launching 10 Iridium communications satellites from Vandenberg. An overhead view of SpaceX's newest rocket landing site, Landing Zone 4, near its West Coast launchpad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SpaceX will attempt the first landing at the site on Oct. 7, 2018. It will be SpaceX's first land-based landing on the West Coast. (Image credit: SpaceX) (Such sea landings are required on missions that feature relatively heavy payloads and/or relatively distant destinations in Earth orbit; in such cases, the booster can't carry enough fuel to make it all the way back to land.) The rocket's return to Earth could make quite an impression on people living near Vandenberg. "Local residents may see the first stage of the Falcon 9 returning to Vandenberg AFB, including multiple engine burns associated with the landing," U.S. Air Force officials wrote in an advisory Tuesday (Oct. 2). "During the landing attempt, residents from Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties may hear one or more sonic booms." And there could be yet more action in the downward direction tonight: SpaceX's speedy, net-equipped boat, Mr. Steven, will apparently try to catch SAOCOM-1A's falling payload fairing. The payload fairing — the protective nose cone that surrounds a satellite during launch — costs about $6 million to make anew for each launch, Musk has said. So, catching and reusing it (or at least half of it; the fairing falls to Earth under parachute as two separate halves) makes a lot of economic sense. Such activities are part of SpaceX's effort to develop reusable spaceflight systems, a cost-slashing breakthrough that company founder and CEO Elon Musk has stressed could transform space exploration. The 3,500-lb. (1,600 kilograms) SAOCOM-1A is headed for a perch 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth. The spacecraft, which was developed by Argentina's space agency CONAE, will study our planet in radar light, gathering data that should help researchers track soil-moisture levels and monitor disasters such as wildfires and floods. SAOCOM-1A's twin, SAOCOM-1B, will also reach orbit aboard a Falcon 9; its flight is targeted for next year. Editor's note: If you capture an amazing photo of video of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments in to: spacephotos@space.com. Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.<doc-sep>A Dazzling Liftoff SpaceX A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the SAOCOM-1A radar-imaging satellite on Oct. 7, 2018, creating a spectacular plume in the California sky. The rocket's first stage also pulled off a historic landing shortly thereafter. See photos here. What a View Joaquin Baldwin via Twitter and Instagram Photographer Joaquin Baldwin captured this spectacular image of SpaceX's successful Falcon 9 rocket launch and landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Oct. 7, 2018. The streak at top right is the Falcon 9 first stage returning to Earth. Simply Amazing Courtesy of Sheila Hoffos Two stages of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket separate inside a glowing plume shortly after the rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California late Sunday night (Oct. 7). After separation, the rocket's second stage continued to haul the SAOCOM-1A satellite into orbit while the first stage returned to Earth for a historic first landing on the U.S. West Coast. Photographer Sheila Hoffos captured this view of the launch from Simi Valley, California, roughly 120 miles (190 kilometers) southeast of Vandenberg. A Gorgeous New Nebula Office of the Mayor/Eric Garcetti The plume generated by the Falcon 9 launch from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Oct. 7, 2018, looked like something NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope might spy in the vast distances between the stars. Giant Cloud Over LA Office of the Mayor/Eric Garcetti Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti captured this shot of the Falcon 9 plume over the lights of LA on Oct. 7, 2018. Two Rocket Stages Office of the Mayor/Eric Garcetti The Falcon 9’s first and second stages (right and left, respectively) are clearly visible in this photo by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. A Wi-Fi Symbol in the Sky Office of the Mayor/Eric Garcetti The pulses fired by the Falcon 9 first stage’s small reaction-control thrusters as the booster headed back to Earth carved a Wi-Fi symbol into the sky, as captured in this shot by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Rainbow of Light Elon Musk/SpaceX This SpaceX image shows the successful launch (and landing) of the company's Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base to orbit Argentina's SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation satellite. It was SpaceX's first mission to land a Falcon 9 booster on a pad at Vandenberg. The Full Flight SpaceX This photo captures all of the SpaceX action on Oct. 7, 2018: A Falcon 9 rocket launching the SAOCOM-1A satellite from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Station; the plume created by the liftoff; and the Falcon 9’s first stage coming back to land at Vandenberg (short orange arc at right). Dazzling Plume Doug Macmillan Skywatcher Doug Macmillan captured this shot of the plume created by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched Argentina’s SAOCOM-1A radar-imaging satellite from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Station on Oct. 7, 2018. Macmillan was in Del Cerro Park in the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which is near Los Angeles. That's No Nebula SpaceX The plume created by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched Argentina’s SAOCOM-1A satellite from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Station on Oct. 7, 2018. The two-stage rocket had separated by this point, and both stages are visible in this shot.<doc-sep>
SpaceX inaugurated its West Coast rocket-landing pad in style. A Falcon 9 rocket with a pre-flown first stage launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base tonight (Oct. 7) at 10:21 p.m. EDT (7:21 p.m. local time; 0221 GMT on Oct. 8), successfully delivering Argentina's SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation satellite to orbit. And, less than 8 minutes after liftoff, the booster's first stage came back to Earth for a pinpoint touchdown at SpaceX's Vandenberg landing zone, just a quarter-mile (400 meters) from its launch pad. [See Amazing Photos of SpaceX's SAOCOM-1A Launch] "This is great news for everyone here at SpaceX," Tom Praderio, a SpaceX firmware engineer, said during live launch commentary tonight. "We're all very excited." The twilight launch created a spectacular sight in the night sky for spectators in Southern California, who took to Twitter to share their amazing photos. One of those viewers was Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. See more "Nope, definitely not aliens," Garcetti wrote on Twitter as he posted an amazing photo. "What you’re looking at is the first launch and landing of the @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the West Coast. The rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:21 p.m. and landed safely back on Earth." SpaceX had already pulled off more than two dozen first-stage landings during orbital liftoffs, with the boosters coming down on robotic "drone ships" stationed in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and on terra firma at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. But tonight's event marked SpaceX's first-ever land touchdown on the West Coast. Such landings are part of SpaceX's push to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets and spacecraft, a breakthrough that company founder and CEO Elon Musk has stressed could cut the cost of spaceflight enough to make grand exploration feats such as the settlement of Mars economically feasible. In keeping with that vision, tonight marked the second flight for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, which also helped loft 10 Iridium Next commercial communications satellites from Vandenberg on July 25. This SpaceX image shows the successful launch (and landing) of the company's Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base to orbit Argentina's SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation satellite. It was SpaceX's first mission to land a Falcon 9 booster on a pad at Vandenberg. (Image credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX) By the way: SpaceX would like to land every booster on terra firma, to ease the reflight process. But that's possible only when launching relatively light payloads to not-too-distant orbits; on other missions, there's not enough fuel left for the Falcon 9 first stage to maneuver all the way back to land. SpaceX calls its California touchdown site Landing Zone 4, presumably because it's part of Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4). This facility, which SpaceX leases from the Air Force, used to feature two launch pads, known as SLC-4 East and SLC-4 West. SpaceX has converted the western one into a landing site and launches Falcon 9s from the eastern one. (The company has two touchdown sites at Cape Canaveral, which are called Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2.) A look at Landing Zone 4, SpaceX's newest rocket landing site, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (Image credit: SpaceX) The 3,500-lb. (1,600 kilograms) SAOCOM-1A satellite was developed by Argentina's national space agency, which is known by its Spanish acronym CONAE. The spacecraft will set up shop 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth and scrutinize the planet using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument. SAOCOM-1A's radar measurements will track soil-moisture levels, thereby aiding forecasts of crop yields. The mission will also help planners and emergency-management officials keep tabs on wildfires, floods and other disasters. The satellite's twin, SAOCOM-1B, will also launch on a Falcon 9; its liftoff is targeted for next year. Both spacecraft will make similar observations from orbit, which will be integrated with measurements made by a network of Italian satellites. "SAOCOM-1, together with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed X-Band SAR constellation, comprise the Italian-Argentine Satellite System for Emergency Management (SIASGE), a partnership between CONAE and the Italian Space Agency (ASI)," SpaceX officials wrote in a mission description. "Flying both constellations along the same orbit supports a rapid response by providing SAR information in emergency situations." "SAOCOM" is short for "Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas," which is Spanish for "Argentine Microwave-Observation Satellite."