LOS ANGELES — SpaceX is one step closer to providing low-cost broadband internet access after launching the first two demonstration satellites for its planned satellite constellation Thursday morning.

The two demonstration satellites, known as Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, were the secondary payload on the Falcon 9 mission, which launched at 6:17 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The primary mission of the launch was to take a radar imaging satellite into low-Earth orbit for a Spanish operator. That satellite deployed about 11 minutes after liftoff.

The launch used a used Falcon 9 first-stage booster. As planned, the Hawthorne, California, company — which is led by Elon Musk and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — did not try to recover that booster again Thursday.

SpaceX intends to create a constellation of satellites known as Starlink that would provide broadband internet access and eventually consist of thousands of satellites.

The two demonstration satellites are intended to test the spacecrafts’ design, structure and subsystems. SpaceX plans to test the satellites’ communication paths using five stationary ground-based test stations and three mobile test vans, according to past filings with the Federal Communications Commission.

Test stations will be in Hawthorne and Fremont in California; McGregor and Brownsville, Texas; and Redmond, Washington, where SpaceX has an office dedicated to satellite development.