A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a telecommunications satellite for Swedish-American company Ovzon lifted off from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Station at 6:04pm EST this evening. After carrying its part of the mission, the booster used for the mission returned for a successful landing at the company’s Landing Zone 1 only a short distance away.

Today’s launch was the first of the year from Florida, kicking off what promises to be a record-breaking year for the Eastern Range. The destination for the payload is geostationary orbit, and it will take about ninety days to arrive at its planned location. Once there, Ovzon-3 will be tested and ultimately provide telecommunications services to the company’s customers.

This was the tenth for Booster B-1076. It previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, Intelsat IS-40e, O3b mPOWER, and five Starlink missions. The booster will be transported to SpaceX’s “Hangar X” facility at Kennedy Space Center, where it will be inspected, and presumably refurbished and prepared for its next mission.

A Jellyfish Was Visible…For Some Lucky Folks

Tonight’s launch was perfect for a phenomenon called a “jellyfish” — Falcon 9 rose above the horizon and back into the sunlight, and the first stage of the rocket’s gasses expanded in the lower pressure of the upper atmosphere and were brightly illuminated in the bright light still illuminating the sky. While the sun had set for those on the ground, the launch was during a period called “nautical twilight” — the period of time when the center of the sun is 6–12 degrees below the horizon.

Unfortunately for most people in the Titusville area, there were clouds between them and the rocket. For others, especially to the south of Brevard County, skies were clear enough to see the jellyfish quite well. For them, Falcon 9 did not disappoint.

Next Launch

This coming Sunday, SpaceX is ostensibly planning to launch another batch of Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from the same launch pad they used this evening, SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch window begins at 4:00pm and extends until 8:31pm Eastern Standard Time.

That’s mere hours before the inaugural launch of Vulcan, United Launch Alliance’s new rocket.

SpaceX has not formally announced this launch as of 9:00pm this evening, January 3rd. That said, the date and time of the Starlink mission is subject to change.