(Bloomberg) -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched a satellite for customer Telstar early Sunday, marking the 13th launch of the year for the closely held company led by Elon Musk.
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the payload from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 1:50 a.m. local time. The satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes after liftoff and the rocket's first stage later landed on the droneship named "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean, the company said on its website.
SpaceX is targeting roughly 30 missions this year, up from a record 18 in 2017. The Hawthorne, California-based company's valuation has climbed to about $25 billion, making it the third-most valuable venture-backed startup in the U.S. after Uber Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Musk serves as chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla Inc., the electric-car maker.
--With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch.
To contact the reporters on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.net;Jim Jia in Sydney at jjia1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Will Davies
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