Another NASA-funded tech demo named Athena EPIC was also aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. Led by NASA's Langley Research Center, this mission uses a scalable satellite platform developed by a company named NovaWurks, using building blocks to piece together everything a spacecraft needs to operate in space.

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets with satellites after they were scrubbed less than a minute before liftoff one day earlier in Florida and California.

SpaceX, which has long deployed its Starlink satellites from Florida, is increasingly launching the missions from California. There's a good reason.