Watch replay of Falcon 9 launch as seen from the press site

For its first mission of the year, SpaceX launched the Airbus-built Turksat 5A communications satellite to cover Turkey, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa with data relay and television broadcast services. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:15 p.m. EST Thursday (0215 GMT Friday).

Watch a time-lapse video of the Falcon 9 rocket going upright at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center as SpaceX prepares for the launch of the seventh batch of Starlink broadband Internet satellites.

An air-launched rocket built by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached orbit Sunday for the first time, delivering 10 experimental CubeSats for NASA and positioning the company for the start of commercial operations.