Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

In one of the strongest public endorsements of SpaceX’s initiative to put a reusable launcher on the commercial market, a top official from satellite communications giant SES said Tuesday that the company wants to fly one of its pricey payloads on a used Falcon 9 rocket, perhaps even without a test flight.

Nearly a decade after Orbcomm raised the money to pay for a second-generation satellite fleet to drastically expand the company’s reach, the $230 million program is finally primed for completion after Monday’s launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) today to place NASA’s new tracking station into the sky. The data router will relay video, telemetry and science information from the space station and dozens of research satellites to a central ground terminal. Follow the ascent in our live journal.