LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. private spaceflight company SpaceX launched Falcon 9 rocket carrying 64 small satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the state of California on Monday.

The mission, dubbed SSO-A, or "SmallSat Express," set a U.S. launch record for most satellites put into space at a single time. It is also SpaceX's first flight to reuse the Falcon 9 first-stage booster a third time.

The rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at the air force base at 10:34 a.m. PST (1834 GMT).

Following stage separation, the first stage of the rocket successfully landed on the "Just Read the Instructions" droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean, about 10 minutes after liftoff. It completed Falcon 9's third launch and landing this year.

The Falcon 9 carried to orbit 64 spacecraft, in particular 15 Micro satellites and 49 cubesats, for 35 customers from 17 countries.

The "ride share" mission was arranged with SpaceX by a company called Spaceflight Industries.

A series of six deployments will occur approximately 13-43 minutes after liftoff, after which Spaceflight will begin to command its own deployment sequences. Spaceflight's deployments are expected to occur over a period of six hours, according to SpaceX.

The mission was previously scheduled for three times, but was postponed to Monday for additional inspections prior to the launch.