Scott Powers
The fifth try was a charm.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday evening carrying an SES communications satellite to orbit, where it will provide commercial services to southern Asia.
The launch, at 6:35 p.m., came on the fifth launch date SpaceX set in the past week and a half, and went up without a hitch into the clear, early-dusk sky over Cape Canaveral.
This launch actually was more than six months in the waiting. Initially, SES, a Luxembourg-based satellite company, had expected SpaceX to carry the SES-9 satellite in August. But SpaceX had a rocket blow up in June and postponed all launches through December.
Delays had occurred for both weather and technical problems.
The next launch from Cape Canaveral will be a Atlas V rocket carrying a Cygnus cargo capsule from Orbital ATK Corp., tentatively set for March 22. That will be a cargo resupply mission for the International Space Station.
