Q&A with Alain Charmeau, CEO of Airbus Safran Launchers

SpaceX launched a Korean communications satellite from Florida on Monday aboard the company’s third Falcon 9 rocket flight of the month. Liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 3:34 p.m. EDT (1934 GMT), and the Falcon 9’s first stage landed on a floating barge in the Atlantic Ocean a few minutes later.

SES has selected Arianespace to launch a communications satellite ordered as part of a three-spacecraft procurement announced last month, after assigning the other two payloads for launches aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in less than 10 minutes Friday night with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and experiments.