Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA’s Psyche on mission to a metal asteroid

A previously-undisclosed payload funded by a U.S. military research agency rode into orbit with a Spanish communications satellite on SpaceX’s most recent Falcon 9 rocket launch March 6, officials said Friday.

Check out photos of the encapsulation of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite inside the payload shroud of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Tuesday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the EchoStar 23 communications satellite into orbit 34 minutes later.