7 SpaceX Launch Photos That Show Elon Musk's Rockets At Work

The country collectively used to stop to watch when NASA conducted rocket launches. Now when NASA or SpaceX launches a rocket, fewer people watch, but it's still a spectacular show. Many of the launches take place by the water at the picturesque Kennedy Space Center. Photos from the SpaceX rocket launches are impressive and help drive home just how huge the rockets really are.

Elon Musk's SpaceX began demo flights in 2006 and has since grown to be the pioneer of commercial space flight. In 2012 SpaceX became the first commercial company ever to conduct a resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. On Monday evening SpaceX launched a communications satellite for the company Inmarsat, the fourth of a constellation of satellites to expand and strengthen its broadband network.

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The launch took place Monday evening with great weather. This photo shows the heaviest payload ever to be taken up by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket just minutes after it launched from the Kennedy Center's historic launch pad 39A.

This launch pad is used frequently and is best known for the Apollo missions. But SpaceX also utilizes the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for some launches.

This photo with the moon just behind the rocket was taken at the Air Fore base when SpaceX was launching 10 satellites for Iridium Communications. The sun setting on the ocean in the background makes for a picture perfect setting.

After the Falcon 9 delivered the 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit, the first stage boosters of the Falcon 9 disengaged and made its way back to Earth. Once there it landed on the ship, Just Read the Instructions, in the Pacific Ocean.

The photo below is from an April 8, 2016, mission during which the Falcon 9 launched Dragon to resupply the ISS for NASA. This was the first time the first-stage of the rocket landed back on the droneship. This made history for the space company and space travel in general.

This was the take-off of the resupply mission from launch pad 40 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Little did the SpaceX crew know when the rocket took off that they were about to make history.

This photo's from the NROL-76 mission to send a secret government satellite into space on May 1, 2017. Little was known about the mission's payload other than it happened and the Falcon 9 completed its 10th successful landing. It was the first national security mission SpaceX conducted for the military. This mission also launched from 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

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The launches make for great photos for the new space exploration and they mean more practice for the company when it comes to landing its rockets. The new technology will change the way space travel is conducted because the reusability brings the cost of rocket launches down significantly. This nighttime launch was of an EchoStar 23 Communications satellite. The first scheduled launch attempt was canceled due to wind. It was rescheduled for early in the morning on March 16.