SpaceX Finally Launches Italian Satellite Into Orbit

After multiple delays, SpaceX finally launched its Falcon 9 rocket on Monday evening. The mission placed an Italian space agency satellite into orbit to observe the earth. The launch happened at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 6:11 PM EST.

The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 40 without any problems. SpaceX successfully recovered the first stage of the Falcon 1 rocket at Landing Zone 1. The satellite placed into orbit for the Italian Space Agency is called COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation.

It is an Earth-observing satellite used to gather data for the Italian government and other commercial needs. The fifth launch attempt was finally successful, with four previous attempts scrubbed due to bad weather.

The most recent scrubbed launch had nothing to do with whether and happened because a cruise ship strayed into the safety exclusion zone for the lift-off. The launch had to be scrubbed with the ship unable to get out of the exclusion zone in time.