SpaceX,Falcon 9 rocket,SpaceX to Launch Spanish Communications Satellite , Falcon 9 launch , II SpaceX to Launch Spanish Communications Satellite Early Tuesday: Watch It Live

SpaceX is poised to make its 50th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, like this one used in September to send an an unmanned X-37B drone into space

SpaceX is poised for the 50th launch of its signature Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday, marking a swift ascent to a milestone many aerospace giants take far longer to attain.

The launch of the Falcon 9 carrying the Hispasat, a Spanish telecommunications and broadband satellite, is scheduled for 12:33 am (0533 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"At six metric tons and almost the size of a city bus, it will be the largest geostationary satellite we've ever flown," SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said on Twitter.
The satellite aims to expand television, broadband and telecommunications service in Europe and Northwest Africa.
The Falcon 9 first flew in 2010, and since then has become the California-based company's workhorse for sending supplies to the International Space Station, launching commercial satellites and secretive government payloads.
Powered by nine Merlin engines, the Falcon 9's first stage has also mastered the art of landing upright on solid ground or on floating platforms in the ocean after launch.
These "recycled" rocket launches are part of SpaceX's goal to lower the cost of spaceflight and re-use expensive rocket parts instead of tossing them in the ocean after each launch.
But SpaceX will not attempt to land Falcon 9's booster Tuesday "due to unfavorable weather conditions in the recovery area off of Florida's Atlantic Coast," said a company statement.
According to the website ArsTechnica, SpaceX reaching 50 launches is "double the maximum number of flights the Atlas V (2014 and 2015) and space shuttle (1985) performed during their most prolific years."
Musk's grand visions for space exploration include sending tourists into orbit around the Moon and eventually, colonizing Mars.
Last month, SpaceX launched its monster Falcon Heavy rocket—three times as powerful as the Falcon 9—for the first time, propelling Musk's own Tesla roadster with a spacesuit-clad dummy at the wheel into an orbit near Mars.

SpaceX, Elon Musk rocket toward 50th Falcon 9 launch

Elon Musk's space company is shooting for its 50th Falcon 9 launch in under eight years. Several of its rockets made multiple trips -- and history.

SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida late Monday, Pacific time, for the 50th time since the first Falcon 9 mission less than eight years ago.

Falcon 9 satellite launches are big business for SpaceX.
SpaceX

It's perhaps fitting the milestone mission will be a rather routine delivery of Hispasat 30W-6, a Spanish communications satellite, to a geostationary orbit high above the equator. Such commercial satellite missions, along with the occasional flight to resupply the International Space Station, have been the bread and butter of SpaceX's business for the past several years.

Along the way, the Falcon 9 has also pioneered the era of the reusable rocket. The company has successfully landed and recovered a Falcon 9 a total of 23 times (a pair of those landings included boosters that made up the Falcon Heavy launchlast month). Six of the 23 landings involved rockets making their second flights.
The two-hour launch window is currently set for 9:33 p.m. PT Monday, with a back window on Tuesday evening. SpaceX said in a statement it "will not attempt to land Falcon 9's first stage after launch due to unfavorable weather conditions in the recovery area off of Florida's Atlantic Coast."
echnically, Monday night's launch would be the 51st time a SpaceX rocket gets off the ground, but a June 28, 2015 Falcon 9 mission to resupply the ISS failed when a fuel tank ruptured and the rocket broke up in flight just a few minutes after launch.
In the years to come, SpaceX hopes to continue speeding up the cadence of its launches while also launching larger rockets like the Falcon Heavy that successfully sent founder Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster toward Mars and the massive "B.F.R." Musk hopes will eventually send humans to Mars and perhaps provide crazy-quick international flights.
If any of these Muskian/Martian science fiction flights of fancy ever come to pass, we'll look back and note how the road to Mars was paved with dozens of rather boring missions like Hispasat. (And perhaps someone will add that they were financed by a massive constellation of broadband satellites Musk plans to launch in the next decade.)
You can watch the live webcast of the Hispasat launch via the above video embed starting around 9:15 p.m. PT.
First published March 5 at 9:21 a.m. PT.
Update, 1:21 p.m. PT: Adds embedded video feed and a quote from SpaceX about recovery plans for the Falcon 9.