SpaceX rocket dumped in ocean 'amazingly' survives

ASpaceX Falcon 9rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying into orbita Luxembourg-made communications satellite designed in part toexpand NATO's surveillance reach and its capability to detercyber attacks on alliance members.

And the rocket mainstage that helped launch it, meant to be discarded, has "amazingly" survived.

The liftoff at 4:25 p.m. ET (2125 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station followed a technical glitch that prompted a24-hour flight delay. It marked the second rocket launch thisyear for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his privatelyowned Space Exploration Technologies.

It comes a week before the California-based company isslated to conduct its highly anticipated first test flight ofthe much larger and more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, whichpacks three times the thrust of the Falcon 9.

Wednesday's payload was a communications satellite built forLuxGovSat S.A., a public-private joint venture between theLuxembourg government and Luxembourg-based telecommunicationscompany SES, in part to fulfilthat nation's growing defenseobligations to NATO.

The so-called GovSat-1 satellite will provide, among otherthings, greater cyber protection for Luxembourg's European Unionpartners and NATO allies, including the United States,Luxembourg Defense Minister Etienne Schneider told a newsconference on Tuesday.

GovSat-1 also will serve civilian telecommunicationssecurity functions.

Thirty-four minutes after liftoff, the satellite wassuccessfully released into a highly elliptical "parking" orbit,according to SpaceX. It will eventually settle into a roundorbit 22,370 miles (36,000 km) high, where it will circle theEarth for 15 years.

Intact after splash-down

Unlike many recent SpaceX launches, the company had notinitially planned on retrieving the rocket's reusable main-stagebecause the payload had to be carried to such a high orbit thatthe booster was left without sufficient fuel to fly back toEarth for a return landing.

However, the booster "amazingly" survived its oceansplash-down intact, Musk said in a Twitter message posted laterwith a photograph of the vehicle floating at sea. "We will tryto tow it back to shore," he said.

The same Falcon 9 booster was used last year in a mission tolaunch a top-secret payload into space for the U.S. government.

With GovSat-1 now in orbit, SpaceX can focus on next week's debut of its new, big Falcon Heavy rocket. The test flight is scheduled for Tuesday.