Florida Today During the Sunday sunset, a Falcon 9 rocket took off into the sky — quickly disappearing behind the scattered clouds as it marked the 80th Florida launch this year. The 81st is set to follow Monday. At 5:28 p.m. SpaceX launched the Optus-X satellite for Australian telecommunication company, Optus. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A, traveling on a due east trajectory. With clouds in the area, most on the Space Coast only saw a short glow before the rocket disappeared. Almost nine minutes after the lift off, the rocket's first stage booster landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX continues to push the reusability of its first stage boosters (lower stage). Sunday's Falcon 9 booster saw its 16th flight. Previous launches include nine Starlink missions, NASA Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, NG-20.