Posted: Tue, Feb 4, 2014, 6:05 AM ET (1105 GMT)
The first commercial communications satellite launched by SpaceX has started commercial operations, its owner announced Monday. SES said the SES-8 satellite is now "fully operational" at its planned location of 95 degrees east in GEO, co-positioned with the company's existing NSS-6 satellite. SES-8 launched in early December on a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, the second launch of that version of the Falcon 9 and the first Falcon 9 launch to carry a satellite to GEO. SpaceX launched another commercial GEO satellite, Thaicom-6, last month. The next SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, of a Dragon cargo spacecraft to the ISS, is planned for March.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  Broadband TV News article
•  SES press release