Elon Musk's SpaceX sends 10 satellites into orbit in another successful launch

Another milestone for private space exploration

Private space flight company SpaceX has conducted another successful launch, delivering a group of satellites into orbit.

All 10 satellites were deployed into low-earth orbit for the company Iridium Communications, SpaceX said, the latest achievement for a company that hopes to be at the forefront of a burgeoning private space industry.

While the satellite launch was successful, another attempted show of technical wizardry fell short.

SpaceX had hoped to land a nose cone that protects the rocket's payload in a seaborne vessel that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk likened to a “giant steel & webbing catcher’s mitt superstructure on a high-speed ocean ship”.

But Mr Musk said a GPS-guided component became twisted, causing the nose cone to plunge into the ocean “at high speed”. A similar effort failed in February, when Mr Musk said SpaceX missed the plummeting component by a few hundred metres.

The day before the most recent launch, the Federal Communications Commission approved Mr Musk's proposal to build a satellite-based broadband network in what the regulator called the first license for services from “a new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite technologies”.

Earlier this year, SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket in front of a delirious crowd in Florida.

The successful launch of the Falcon Heavy marked another major milestone for SpaceX. It sent a red Tesla carrying a dummy in a sleek white spacesuit hurtling beyond Earth’s atmosphere, a playful nod to Mr Musk also serving as the founder of Tesla.

While Mr Musk is trying to carve out a dominant space in the emerging private space flight industry, Donald Trump has vowed to reinvigorate America’s moribund space programme.

The president last year signed a directive seeking to partner with private entities to return humans to the moon and establish a foundation for reaching Mars, a goal Mr Trump has spoken of repeatedly.

Earlier this year, the president mused to a gathering of Marines about launching a “Space Force” branch of the military.