Foiled four days by delays, the Falcon 9 rocket finally lifted off Friday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The two-stage booster blasted off at 10:38 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base where clear weather and mostly cloud-free skies provided the perfect backdrop and rewarded the patience of those awaiting the flight initially planned for Monday.

The Space Exploration Technologies rocket’s departure left a squiggly contrail in the sky en route to delivering its cargo.

The booster carted 51 Starlink satellites into orbit as SpaceX continues to expand its constellation of satellites designed to provide internet access in remote areas of the world. 

SpaceX confirmed deployment of the satellites had occurred as planned approximately 15 minutes after liftoff. 

This marked the 12th flight for the rocket’s first-stage booster which successfully returned to land on a drone ship positioned in the Pacific Ocean as SpaceX employees applauded the touch down on the bull’s-eye.

Recycling the first-stage booster allows SpaceX to reduce costs and decrease the time between missions. 

A combination of unfavorable weather at Vandenberg and the first-stage landing site several hundred miles away from the Central Coast along with an East Coast launch of a different SpaceX rocket led to postponements for the Starlink mission.

This was the 15th launch of the year for SpaceX and the fourth from Vandenberg for the firm. 

The previous missions included the launch of the second-generation Starlink satellites from Florida. 

So far, SpaceX has launched more than 4,000 Starlink satellites into space from both Florida and California.