SpaceX returned to flight with a successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Monday after a 24-hour delay.

The company successfully landed the first stage on the ground after liftoff. It was the first time a rocket landed on the Cape.

For safety reasons, officials say, only key company and Air Force personnel have been allowed on Air Force Station property. Media are being asked to report from nearby Port Canaveral.

In previous launches, SpaceX has unsuccessfully attempted to land the booster onto a floating barge off the coast, where they had to contend with ocean waves and currents.

The primary mission for tonight's launch is to take 11 next-generation communication satellites to orbit for ORBCOMM, each of them weighing about 400 pounds.

The company has been waiting for months for the launch — now a "return to flight" mission for SpaceX. In June, a SpaceX rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station exploded shortly after liftoff. A faulty strut in the rocket's upper stage was later to blame.

The company has since upgraded the Falcon 9.



SpaceX hopes to recover its rockets so that they can be reused and drive down launch costs.

When the rocket returns to land, residents near Cape Canaveral may hear a sonic boom.

A sonic boom is a thunder-like noise created when an aircraft or spacecraft flies overhead faster than the speed of sound. Residents on the Space Coast haven't heard a sonic boom since the last space shuttle landing in July 2011.

SpaceX said residents in Northern and Central Brevard are most likely to hear it, including the communities of Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Merritt Island, Mims, Port Canaveral, Port St. John, Rockledge, Scottsmoor, Sharpes and Titusville. Weather will play a factor in hearing it.