Q&A with Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium (members only)

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites from California early Saturday, after days of delay. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 1:04:19 a.m. PST (4:04:19 a.m. EST / 0904:19 UTC).

The chief executive of Axiom Space says agreements with NASA, SpaceX, and fare-paying passengers should be finalized in the coming weeks for the launch of the first all-private crew to the International Space Station in October 2021, and former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is set to command the mission.

Russia’s Proton rocket launched from Kazakhstan at 0547 GMT (1:47 a.m. EDT) Saturday with Mexico’s Centenario communications satellite, but the Russian space agency reported an anomaly occurred some time after liftoff.