Video: Dragon arrives at space station

The Starlink 8-1 mission marked the second declared launch of Starlink satellites featuring the Direct to Cell capability. Liftoff from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened on Saturday, April 6, at 7:25 p.m. PDT (10:25 EDT, 0225 UTC).

On the eve of the Iridium’s fifth launch with SpaceX, the mobile telecom satellite operator’s chief executive says he no longer waits for SpaceX’s rockets to be ready. Instead, Iridium’s satellite team is racing to keep pace churning spacecraft off their assembly line.

Two communications satellites owned by SES are booked to fly into orbit — possibly from South Texas — on a pair of Falcon 9 rockets in 2017, giving SpaceX two payloads that could be assigned to launch from the new commercial spaceport, officials said Wednesday.