Last night +SpaceX gave Southern California quite the lightshow with its final Falcon 9 launch of the year from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Iridium-4 mission was the fourth set of satellites delivered by SpaceX for Iridium’s next generation global satellite constellation.
The light of the setting Sun highlighted the contrail of the Falcon 9 as it accelerated into the upper atmosphere. The shutoff of the first stage and ignition of the second stage can be clearly seen in the billowing plume. The first stage of the rocket can also be seen falling back to Earth as the payload continues onwards.
Source: https://youtu.be/tE5C3O71Xqo (Doug Ellison)
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