A Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 3 successfully placed a telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit in a launch that invests SpaceX with the long-anticipated credibility it will now use to attack the global commercial market. The launch, for satellite fleet operator SES of Luxembourg, placed the 3,138-kilogram SES-8 satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit with a target perigee of 295 kilometers and an apogee of 80,000 kilometers.
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