LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX launched an advanced weather satellite mission for the U.S. Space Force on Thursday.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:25 a.m. Pacific Time. The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth safely, touching down at Vandenberg's Landing Zone about eight minutes after liftoff.
The mission, codenamed USSF-62, is sending the Weather System Follow-on -- Microwave (WSF-M) satellite to low Earth orbit. SpaceX later confirmed the satellite was deployed.
The mission will help enable new imaging capabilities for low-Earth orbit weather data collection, according to SpaceX. ■