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Super 50: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX has launched the $337 million satellite that will carry on the mission of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, to hunt for planets beyond our solar system in greater detail than ever before. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) blasted away from Earth atop a Falcon 9 rocket on schedule at 6:51 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. 'As you just saw, Falcon 9 has successfully cleared the pad and is now on its ascent with the TESS spacecraft in its faring,' the announcers confirmed as the rocket climbed through the sky. Minutes after launch, SpaceX managed to successfully recover the Falcon 9's first stage by landing it on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 185 miles off the coast.

Updated : 19 April 2018, 12:44 PM

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