EchoStar 23

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, carrying the EchoStar 23 commercial television broadcast satellite into orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched into a starry moonlit sky Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, making a speedy trek across the Atlantic Ocean to place a commercial television broadcast satellite into orbit for EchoStar.

Rain showers and gloomy clouds blew through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday evening, but it was high winds that prevented liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday with a commercial communications satellite. Launch has been rescheduled for Thursday at 1:35 a.m. EDT (0535 GMT).

A 229-foot-tall (70-meter) SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stood on launch pad 39A on Monday afternoon on the eve of a scheduled blastoff with the EchoStar 23 television broadcast satellite.

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.