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.
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