SpaceX successfully launched its first deep-space mission Wednesday evening, after two aborted launches in recent days.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket deployed a satellite that will eventually take up position almost a million miles from Earth, where it will watch for incoming solar storms.
Founder Elon Musk hopes to land the Falcon on a floating barge off the Florida coast. SpaceX’s previous attempt to make that soft landing, which could dramatically reduce rocket launches’ cost, ended in a fiery crash.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Clandestine Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- The Biggest Snubs and Surprises of the 2023 Oscar Nominations
- Talking Less Will Get You More
- Kamala Harris Subtly Emerges as Powerful White House Asset
- How Avatar: The Way of Water Became the 6th Movie in History to Make $2 Billion
- Is There Really No Safe Amount of Drinking?
- How Our Cells Strategize To Keep Us Alive
