Florida sunset SpaceX launch followed California liftoff hours before

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Just after sunset Friday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket illuminated the Space Coast’s dusk sky after an on-time liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The 7:38 p.m. EDT mission from Launch Complex 40 carried the SES 18 and 19 communications satellites to orbit for Luxembourg-based operator SES, then wrapped up with a drone ship landing in the Atlantic Ocean. It marked SpaceX’s second flight of the day after a different Falcon 9 launch four hours prior from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, which boosted another batch of the company’s Starlink internet satellites. That mission also included a drone ship landing.