SpaceX Launches Intelsat 40e With NASA Earth Science Instrument Aboard
SpaceX has successfully launched a commercial communications satellite into orbit with a NASA Earth science instrument aboard. The Intelsat 40e satellite was carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the fourth flight for the Falcon 9's first stage, which landed successfully on the company's drone ship, A Shortfall Of Gravitas, in the Atlantic Ocean. Intelsat 40e will settle in a geostationary orbit (GEO) at 91 degrees West, and perform its main communications role while allowing NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) to take hourly snapshots of air pollution over North…