Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket launches with SpaceX’s next 60 Starlink satellites

The U.S. Air Force this week awarded SpaceX a contract to launch a Global Positioning System satellite in early 2019, concluding the second of as many as 15 competitions the military plans to run over the next year to pit SpaceX against United Launch Alliance for rights to lift defense and intelligence-gathering payloads into orbit.

NASA and SpaceX officials briefed the media Wednesday on the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule on a resupply flight to the International Space Station.

An Ariane 5 rocket launched Tuesday with the Arabsat 6B and GSAT 15 communications satellites to broadcast television across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia and link India with telecom and navigation services. Liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, occurred at 2134 GMT (4:34 p.m. EST).