More: Florida's Space Coast reaches a milestone 70 rocket launches this year. See how SpaceX's Starlink is driving the record up Hundreds of launch spectators — many with hands jammed into coat pockets to stay warm in 58-degree evening weather — sat in metal bleachers at the visitor complex's North Atlantis Lawn viewing area. A key attraction: The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters were scheduled to descend and land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, triggering window-rattling sonic booms. "Now folks, you're going to look at that and say, 'That's CGI. That's all fake' — and you're going to be looking at it with your own eyes," commentator Bill Schafer told the crowd over loudspeakers. "But you'll hear the sonic boom. You'll hear the roar of the engine. This is beautiful weather for this. Good Lord willing, we'll be able to have an amazing launch. And then about 8½ minutes into the flight, (they'll) be landing. And you'll just be amazed," Schafer said. The Falcon Heavy lifted the Space Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle "mini-shuttle" robotic space plane into orbit on the USSF-52 national security mission. This marks the secretive vehicle's seventh classified mission. "The OTV payload will conduct tests that include operating the reusable space plane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA," Jessie Anderson, a SpaceX production and engineering manager, said during the launch webcast. Scant information is publicly known about the Boeing-built space plane's classified activities. The X-37B spent a record 908 days in low-Earth orbit before ending its last mission in November 2022 and touching down at KSC's Launch and Landing Facility. Indeed, "at our customer's request," Anderson announced SpaceX would not broadcast views of the rocket's second stage during the launch webcast. “A lot of the details about it are unknown to us, because it's all classified. But it’s been an incredibly successful vehicle, as far as we can tell,” Scott said of the X-37B. The Melbourne resident previously embarked on three spacewalks totaling 19 hours, 26 minutes. “But another thing that's important about this one is, it’s the first time this Space Force plane is launching on a (Falcon Heavy) rocket. So you've got a military vehicle being launched on a private civilian, or commercial, rocket," Scott said. “SpaceX is doing a great job at providing us alternatives to space. Alternatives other than NASA, other than the Space Force, other than ULA, and so on. So that’s really good,” he said. In a Friday morning press release, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, who commands Space Launch Delta 45, said "our teams worked shoulder-to-shoulder to ensure a successful launch.” “Our national security space missions are the most stressing within our launch portfolio, and we have multiple world-class organizations that come together to make the magic happen. We’re having a great year, doing what we love to do putting capabilities into space to deter and, if necessary, respond to threats to our nation and its allies,” Panzenhagen said.