Video: Falcon 9 rocket fires engines in pre-launch test (members only)

A Chinese Kuaizhou 1A rocket launched Tuesday with the first two spacecraft for China’s planned 80-satellite Xingyun communications and data relay constellation.

China successfully launched a Gaofen optical observation satellite Sunday toward a perch more than 22,000 miles over the equator, where it will use an Earth-facing telescope to collect remote sensing images, Chinese state media said.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Merah Putih communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.