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Communications Satellites Successfully Launched From Central Coast

(SpaceX Photo)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 10 satellites on board lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base Friday morning

Ten new communications satellites are now in orbit around the earth, after being successfully launched from the Central Coast. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base just after 7:30 Friday morning. It carried 10 Iridium Next satellites into a low earth orbit.

The eighth in a series of launches over a two year period completes Iridium’s deployment of more than 70 small satellites to create an advanced global communications network.

After completing its mission, the unmanned rocket was successfully landed on a barge off the Pacific Coast for reuse.

SpaceX has now successfully landed its rockets for reuse more than 30 times.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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