Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

SpaceX’s next launch, scheduled for no earlier than May 15, will loft dozens of small test satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral for the company’s planned Starlink broadband network, with fully operational Starlink spacecraft to follow on future missions, a senior SpaceX official said Tuesday.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.

A Russian military communications satellite rode a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage Thursday into an orbit stretching nearly 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) above Earth, successfully launching after a one-month delay to replace a suspect third stage on the Soyuz booster.