SpaceX launches communications satellite

CAPE CANAVERAL — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Monday carrying Turkmenistan's first communications satellite to orbit.

After a nearly 50-minute delay due to cloud cover, the 224-foot rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at 7:03 p.m. ET, roaring from the pad with 1.3 million pounds of thrust.

Atop the rocket was a nearly 10,000-pound satellite headed for an orbit 22,300 miles over the equator. Because the spacecraft was headed to such a high orbit, the Falcon 9 booster didn't carry enough spare fuel to attempt an experimental landing at sea, like on SpaceX's previous mission.

By 7:45 p.m., SpaceX confirmed successful deployment in orbit of the TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSat communications satellite for Thales Alenia Space. The satellite's name reflects its planned orbital position at a longitude of 52 degrees east.

"Rocket launch good, satellite in geo transfer orbit," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. "Still so damn intense. Looking fwd to it feeling normal one day."

Monaco provided that orbital position and will take some of the satellite's capacity to beam TV, phone and Internet services to parts of Central Asia, Europe and Africa.

Thales Alenia Space of France built the satellite and contracted for the launch, which SpaceX referred to as the "Thales mission."

The launch was the second in 13 days from the Cape by a Falcon 9 rocket, and fifth this year — one shy of SpaceX's total for all of 2014.

It was the 18th flight of a Falcon 9 overall since its debut in 2010.

Next up for SpaceX is an important test of the Dragon capsule the company is developing to fly astronauts.

The company plans May 5 to launch a Dragon test vehicle from a stand at Launch Complex 40, firing the SuperDraco thrusters that would enable the Dragon and its crew to escape from a rocket failing on the pad or in flight.