Live coverage: Two satellites blast off on Ariane 5

Iridium chief executive Matt Desch spoke with Spaceflight Now on the eve of the first launch for the company’s next-generation satellite fleet, discussing the $3 billion upgrade’s technical and financial ramifications and his feelings before deployments begin in orbit.

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin engines at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A Thursday in a customary pre-flight test ahead of the company’s next mission, slated for Monday with a commercial South Korean-owned communications satellite.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday with the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite, a powerhouse spacecraft designed to beam broadband and in-flight WiFi signals across the Americas and the North Atlantic. The rocket’s first stage successfully landed at sea aboard SpaceX’s drone ship.