Gene Blevins / Reuters SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, U.S., January 14, 2017. A SpaceX Falcon rocket blasted off from California on Saturday, returning the company to flight for the first time since a fiery launchpad explosion in September. The mission will test changes implemented by Space Exploration Technologies Corp, known as SpaceX, since the launchpad explosion. The explosion destroyed a $62 million SpaceX booster and a $200 million Israeli communications satellite that it was to put into orbit two days later. Saturday’s flight begins to clear a logjam of more than 70 missions, worth more than $10 billion, awaiting flights on SpaceX Falcon rockets, which last flew in August, SpaceX said.

Source: Huffington Post January 14, 2017 19:32 UTC