Video: Falcon 9 launch with natural sound (members only)

SpaceX launched more than 2,500 of its satellites so far this year. It executed liftoff of its Falcon 9 rocket from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday at 1:41 p.m. PDT (4:41 p.m. EDT / 2041 UTC).

ICEYE, a Finnish company that builds and operates a growing fleet of commercial Earth-observing spacecraft, has released the first radar image from a microsatellite with a resolution of less than 1 meter, showcasing advances in tech miniaturization that could aid environmental monitoring, military surveillance, and the exploration of other planets.

Russia launched a military communications satellite Wednesday, sending a data relay and broadcasting station to an orbit more than 22,000 miles above the equator aboard a Proton rocket and a Breeze M upper stage.