My old photography sidekick, Bill W., captured this image of tonight’s SpaceX launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and deployment of the Argentine SAMOCOM 1A satellite. Many in California could view the event as the rocket and payload were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California (bringing back special memories, as I worked there on assignment for a few months in 1965-66 and witnessed many AFWTR — Air Force Western Test Range — night-time rocket test launches).
Follow this link to see what an NBC meterologist saw in LA.
The video below from SpaceX documents more fully the event, including the return landing of the 15-story-tall first stage of the Falcon rocket back at Vandenberg. First ever land-based landing for SpaceX. This video, IMHO, is well worth watching in its ~37-minute entirety.
