Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

A Boeing-built communications satellite lifted off at 7:21 p.m. EDT (2321 GMT) Monday on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will add to Inmarsat’s Global Xpress network linking airplanes, ships and other mobile terminals with broadband Internet and data services.

The geostationary orbital satellite is the fourth and final in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R (GOES-R) series. Liftoff happened at 5:26 p.m. EDT (2126 UTC).

Dan Hart leads a staff of hundreds of engineers and technicians developing LauncherOne, a commercial air-launched booster intended to hurl small satellites weighing up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) into orbit.