Hefei, which is equivalent to a 23-story building, sprang from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the first customer load. The missile was first launched in the Tesla-Roadstar cherry-red mask to space in its first pilot flight in 2018.
"The Falcon Hefei went to space," said John Innsbrucker, a commentator on SpaceX launches.
About three minutes later, a Hefei rocket ripped apart from the sides of the main rocket, flinging them together at Cape Canaveral Air Station amid loud cheers from SpaceX engineers at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
After pushing the payload into space, the middle propulsion rocket returned about 10 minutes later on a successful landing on a Mississippi X-ray cruise ship 645 kilometres from the Florida coast.
"The Falcon rockets landed," Masche said, announcing the return of all three propellant missiles, which would be renewed to fly again on another mission to Hifi Falcon this summer to carry a range of military and scientific satellites for the Air Force.