Successful liftoff and deployment of 10 Iridium satellites

Long exposure of Falcon 9 launching from the VAFB
Photo Credit // SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifted off from SLC-4E at 8:27pm EST at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This launch featured a flight-proven first stage booster, which previously launched the Iridium-2 mission back in June. The interstage on the booster was left uncleaned, because there was no need to and it would not affect the mission. It also did not feature any landing legs, but grid fins were installed still for a controlled descent and soft touchdown of the first stage in the Pacific Ocean, which was successful. After the second stage engine shutdown, it carried the 10 Iridium satellites around Earth for a 42-minute coast phase. The second stage started up a second time for approximately 11 seconds to circularize the orbit. After second stage shutdown for the second time, the 10 Iridium satellites started deploying after 5 minutes over the course of 15 minutes.

Falcon 9 clears the pad at SLC-4E
Photo Credit // SpaceX

Everything happened on time and successfully. This was SpaceX's last launch of the year and overall the last launch in the world for the year. This was their 18th launch, which beats their previous years and the other space companies launches. It was a good year for SpaceX and next year will be better with the maiden launch of their Falcon Heavy and the continued testing of Dragon 2 with the in-flight abort and Demo flight.