a spacex falcon 9 rocket carrying the world’s first all electric communications satellites successfully launched this morning the huge 22 story tall booster took off from cape canaveral air force station in florida at 350am gmt this morning (1050pm est yesterday), the third flight in less than two months for spacex on this occasion, though, spacex made no attempt to land the rocket again on a floating barge, as they had done previously scroll down for video  a spacex falcon 9 rocket carrying two commercial communications satellites launched from cape canaveral air force station launch complex 41 this morning it is seen here over the skyline of downtown cocoa beach in a two minute time exposure of the launch  on top of the rocket were a pair of satellites built by boeing and owned by paris based eutelsat communications and bermuda based asia broadcast satellite (abs) the satellites are unique in that they are powered solely by ion propulsion, as opposed to chemical propellant that is usually favoured this has the benefit of making the much lighter, as they don’t need to carry fuel with them ‘the value of electrical propulsion is that it allows the satellite operator to need much less fuel than when the satellite has chemical propulsion,’ eutelsat chief executive michel de rosen said in an interview before launch without the fuel they would normally need   hydrazine   the satellites each weighed less than 5,000lbs (2,270kg), whereas normally they would have weighed more than 8,000lbs (3,630kg) without an ion propulsion system this also meant both satellites could be carried by spacex’s medium sized falcon 9 rocket – had they been laden with fuel, only one could have been taken to orbit on this launch this also brought the cost of the launch down   eutelsat and abs paid around £20 million ($30 million) each to place their satellites on the rocket, as a single launch costs about £40 million ($60 million) however, as ion propulsion   also known as solar electric propulsion   is much weaker than chemical propulsion, it will take them months rather than weeks to reach their desired geostationary orbit ‘you can have a much lighter satellite, so that, in theory, the cost of your launch is much reduced’ the lighter of the two satellites, abs 3a, will reach its destination by the end of august, while the eutelsat 115 west b spacecraft will take a few weeks longer in space, the two satellites were released one by one in opposite directions, so as to avoid a collision once in their desired orbits, about 22,300 miles (35,800km) above earth, they will be able to remain operational for at least two decades to get there, they will use what is called a ‘supersynchronous transfer orbit’, which involves performing a large elliptical ‘loop’ around earth to reach this relatively distant location once they reach their orbits, they will remain in one position over a particular part of the world, providing coverage to certain areas specifically, the abs 3a satellite will connect the americas, europe, africa and the middle east the eutelsat 115 west b satellite, meanwhile, will provide coverage from alaska and canada to south america eutelsat's spacecraft will become part of a 35 member network providing a range of mobile, internet, video and other communications services the new satellite expands the company's reach into the americas abs, which currently has six satellites, will position its new spacecraft to also serve customers in europe, africa and the middle east the companies are partnering for a second pair of satellites that are due to launch aboard another falcon 9 rocket later this year spacex also flies cargo missions to the international space station for nasa and is working on an upgraded spaceship to fly astronauts as well the next spacex launch, which will take a communications satellite for tukemenistan into orbit, is currently scheduled for 21 march 2015 on top of the rocket (shown) were a pair of satellites built by boeing and owned by paris based eutelsat communications and bermuda based asia broadcast satellite (abs) the satellites are unique in that they are powered solely by ion propulsion, as opposed to chemical propellant that is usually favoured  the rocket flies through brevard county skies in this view from melbourne after its liftoff from cape canaveral air force station without chemical fuel the weight of the satellites was drastically reduced, allowing both to be launched on the same rocket rather than costly separate launches in space, the two satellites were released one by one in opposite directions, so as to avoid a collision  the vine above shows the moment the first of the two satellites   abs 3a   was released into orbit  the two satellites are seen here before launch abs 3a is on the top, and the eutelsat 115 west b is on the bottom of the payload the latter was slightly heavier to support the weight of the former 
spacex first august of this year cape canaveral florida
a spacex rocket has lifted off from cape canaveral in florida carrying the world's first all electric satellites  the two spacecraft will reach their desired orbit in august of this year and will maintain itusing ion propulsion  without chemical fuel their weight was drastically reduced, allowing both to be launched on the same rocket rather than costly separate launches 