South Korea put its second domestically made spy satellite into orbit, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday, after it launched from an American space center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The satellite successfully communicated with an overseas ground station shortly afterwards, the ministry said.

"Our military's second reconnaissance satellite successfully separated from the launch vehicle at around 09:02 (1202 GMT) and entered the target orbit," the defense ministry said in a statement.

The satellite "successfully established contact with an overseas ground station at approximately 10:57 (0157 GMT)", it added.

Seoul's military said its "independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities have been further strengthened," by the successful launch.

"We will proceed with future satellite launches without a hitch," it added.

Seoul launched its first military spy satellite in December, which was also carried by one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the U.S. to Canada eagerly awaited Monday's celestial sensation—a total eclipse of the sun—even as forecasters called for clouds.

The best weather was expected at the tail end of the eclipse in Vermont and Maine, as well as New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

It promised to be North America's biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

"Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast," National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Maines explained at Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center on Sunday.

Eclipse spectators staked out their spots across three countries Sunday, fervently hoping for clear skies despite forecasts calling for clouds along most of the sun-vanishing route.