SpaceX launches 2 NASA astronauts into space: First time since 2011

In just 4:30 minutes, the space vehicle reached an altitude of 179km above earth. It continues to accelerate with 2nd stage burning. In the meanwhile, the first stage booster keeps falling back to earth.

While it reached an orbit of 200km altitude, the first stage booster (on right) was falling back towards earth and rockets fired about a minute to slow down it’s fall. This reusable booster landed on a drone ship in Atlantic.