(Friday launch photos courtesy SpaceX)

     Updated--A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base several minutes less than an hour before sunrise Friday morning.

     The timing of the 6:07 AM liftoff created a spectacular a light show in the predawn sky that sent camera buffs into a frenzy and everybody else "oohing and aahing".

     The payload, another 23 Starlink satellites, were deployed into low earth orbit by the second stage about an hour after launch.

     The first stage, meanwhile, had already landed back on earth just eight minutes after liftoff.