Jan. 29 (UPI) -- SpaceX on Wednesday night launched a Spanish communications satellite from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and retired the first-stage booster rather than landing on a droneship.
The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:34 p.m. EST from pad 39A. The first-stage cutoff came 2 minutes, 40 seconds after liftoff and the satellite deployed at 31 minutes, 24 seconds after launch. It was to be 22,236 miles above Earth, according to Space.com.
Because the SpainSat satellite needed to be lifted into a higher than other satellites, the first-stage booster didn't return to Earth intact.