SpaceX launched a spy satellite for the U.S. Department of Defense¹ early Monday morning and then landed the first stage of its rocket back on solid ground.

 

周一早些时候SpaceX为美国国防部发射了一颗间谍卫星，然后把一级火箭降落在坚实的地面上。

 

The two-stage Falcon² 9 rocket, carrying the classified NROL-76 satellite, lifted off at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT) from historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same pad that supported numerous Apollo and space shuttle launches, the company's live webcast showed.

 

About 10 minutes later, the rocket's first stage landed at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1, just south of the launch site at Cape³ Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

SpaceX previously⁴ landed a first stage booster at Landing Zone 1 three times. It also successfully recovered Falcon 9 first stages from six missions at sea using the company's drone ships.

 

Few details have been released about NROL-76, a satellite designed, built and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office, a member of the U.S. intelligence community of an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

 

This launch has great symbolic⁵ significance for SpaceX, since it's the 15-year-old company's first mission for the Pentagon.

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