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

The flight marked the first launch of Direct to Cell-capable Starlink satellites from Florida. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:16 p.m. EDT (0216 UTC) on Tuesday.

The 21 satellites from York Space Systems are the first in the SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellite constellation. SpaceX launched from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:12 a.m. PDT (10:12 a.m. EDT / 1412 UTC).

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $109 million contract to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, a NOAA space weather observatory, a robotic scout to map water on the moon, and two other ridealong payloads on a single Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in 2024.