Live coverage: Japanese navigation satellite launches on H-2A rocket

An extended mission for the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage after launch Thursday with a space station cargo ship helped demonstrate SpaceX’s ability to perform long-duration flight sequences to inject U.S. military payloads directly into high-altitude geosynchronous orbit.

A new optical Earth observation satellite launched by China Monday joins the country’s remote sensing network for land surveys, urban planning, and agriculture monitoring.

SpaceX aims to launch its next mission, the 50th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, just after midnight Tuesday from Cape Canaveral with a commercial communications satellite for Hispasat.