Photos: Final ULA mission of the year blasts off successfully

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, flying with a first stage booster that was previously launched and recovered in May, lifted from Cape Canaveral at 1:18 a.m. EDT (0518 GMT) Tuesday with Indonesia’s Merah Putih communications satellite. The first stage accomplished a pinpoint landing on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The penultimate satellite in the current generation of Global Positioning System spacecraft will be deployed Friday, capping a hectic four weeks with three launches from two coasts for the Atlas 5 rocket fleet.

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, where a Falcon 9 rocket is set to undergo a static fire test Thursday in advance of a commercial satellite launch May 31.