SpaceX to Launch Secret Spy Craft Mission
- Mission is first time Falcon 9 carried U.S.’s X-37B vehicle
- Hurricane approaching Florida but too far away to delay launch
QuickTake: Evolution of the Space Race
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SpaceX successfully launched a classified Air Force drone from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as Hurricane Irma barrels toward the state.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched the Air Force space plane around 10 a.m. local time Thursday, despite warnings earlier in the morning the weather was only 50 percent favorable for the mission. Irma was forecast to be about 900 miles southeast of the launch site during Thursday’s take-off, with a separate storm system causing the earlier lift-off uncertainty, according to the nearby Patrick Air Force Base.