The rocket carried 24 satellites into space and delivered them to four separate orbits. While the side boosters stuck their planned landing at SpaceX’s landing pads at Cape Canaveral, the centre core missed its planned landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean and crashed into the water. (The Verge)

Talking point: The mission was designed to prove to the U.S. Air Force that the company is capable of carrying out national security missions; its success could make it eligible for U.S. defence space-launch contracts. While the recovery of all launch components is still an important goal for the company, it isn’t essential to the completion of its missions, such as delivering satellites into orbit. SpaceX is one of four companies competing to be one of the U.S. Air Force’s two primary launch providers. It’s up against Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance; the three firms are developing new rockets and have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. Air Force for those developments. SpaceX has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. government because it didn’t receive any of that money.