Photos: Falcon takes flight

Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic have prompted officials to postpone the planned March 30 launch of Argentina’s SAOCOM 1B radar observation satellite from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, officials said Tuesday.

Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight Industries, spoke with Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark on Sept. 29 about the Seattle-based company’s purchase of a dedicated rideshare mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and various trends and strategies in play in the small satellite launch market.

This was the first of the company’s first five commercial satellites for the BlueBird constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 4:52 a.m. EDT (0852 UTC).