SpaceX launches Falcon 9 with first broadband internet satellites

SpaceX launch bring Elon Musk's broadband-internet satellite plan closer to reality

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a customer payload plus its own broadband demonstration satellites in the company’s first mission since millions tuned in earlier this month for its Falcon Heavy debut.

The Thursday launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central Coast carried a radar-imaging satellite for Spain’s Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos SA. The PAZ satellite will orbit the planet 15 times a day and collect information - including ship tracking and weather data - for government and commercial customers.

The rocket also carried a pair of SpaceX’s own broadband satellites as a secondary payload.