Photos: Falcon takes flight

SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center at 7:29 a.m. EDT (1129 GMT) Tuesday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Meanwhile, the launch of another SpaceX rocket a few miles away with a GPS satellite has been postponed indefinitely after a countdown abort moments before liftoff Friday night.

Rumbling into the sky from a historic NASA-owned launch pad, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket — the world’s most powerful present-day launcher — flew for the first time Tuesday, dispatching a road-worn electric Tesla sports car with a spacesuit-clad mannequin nicknamed “Starman” on an interplanetary journey that will reach beyond the orbit of Mars.

Construction is complete on the first batch of 81 new satellites to overhaul Iridium’s mobile communications network, and the data relay stations will soon head from their factory near Phoenix to California’s hilly Central Coast for launch Sept. 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.