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SpaceX launches rocket carrying 40 satellites from Kennedy Space Center

Sonic booms possible with first-stage booster landing

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – SpaceX launched a rocket Thursday evening from Kennedy Space Center with a landing that triggered sonic booms.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at 5:27 p.m. Thursday. The rocket carried a batch of 40 satellites into orbit for OneWeb, which is deploying a constellation of satellites for low-latency broadband communications. This is the first OneWeb launch for SpaceX.

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The Falcon 9′s first-stage booster returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which means people in the area heard sonic booms from the landing.

Forecasters with the 45th Space Wing previously predicted only a 10% chance of weather delaying the launch.

This is the first of two SpaceX launches planned in the next few days. SpaceX will also attempt to launch a Japanese lunar spacecraft Sunday at 2:38 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Whenever those launches happen, News 6 will stream them live.

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