SpaceX satellite launch succeeds, but rocket crash lands

SpaceX successfully launched a communications satellite to a distant orbit but failed, as expected, to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean platform. The satellite successfully reached its geostationary orbit more than 24,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) above the Earth, about 100 times as high as the International Space Station. "Target altitude of 40,600 kilometers achieved," wrote SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.