VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, US (AP): A SpaceX rocket carried 53 satellites for the Starlink internet constellation into orbit after blasting off from California.

The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07 pm Friday and minutes later, the first stage landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean while the second stage continued toward low Earth orbit.

SpaceX later tweeted that the satellites were successfully deployed.

Starlink is a space-based system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has hundreds of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 340 miles (550 kilometres).