Falcon 9

A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral early Sunday with a high-power digital radio satellite for SiriusXM, marking SpaceX’s 18th Falcon 9 flight since Jan. 1, but just the third dedicated to external commercial customers in a year dominated by missions building out the company’s own Starlink internet network.

SiriusXM will get a new radio broadcasting satellite with a launch scheduled early Sunday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, following the failure of an identical spacecraft after a launch last December.

SpaceX launched a powerful radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM early Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 12:26 a.m. EDT (0426 GMT) to haul the roughly 7.5-ton spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in less than 10 minutes Thursday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 7,300 pounds of supplies and experiments.

SpaceX ignited a Falcon 9 rocket for a 10-second test-firing early Thursday on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, clearing a pre-flight check before a mission set to blast off just after midnight Sunday with the SXM 8 radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM.

In what’s become a rarity for SpaceX and its workhorse fleet of “flight-proven” hardware, a brand new Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule are scheduled to launch Thursday on a NASA-contracted flight to deliver more than 7,300 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.