Watch SpaceX take off and land on an occasional Falcon 9 rocket

After a month – long break in spaceflight, SpaceX is expected to launch another rocket launch and landing in Florida this afternoon, sending a communications satellite to the country of Qatar. This will be SpaceX's 18th mission in 2018, setting a record in 2017 for the most launches in a year. SpaceX still has a handful of planned missions for this year, which suggests that the company will soon reach a new record.

For this mission, SpaceX uses another of its used rockets, a Falcon 9 accelerator, which launched the Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite in July. After this mission, the rocket landed on one of SpaceX's autonomous UAVs in the Atlantic Ocean, and the company hopes to achieve the same feat after today's launch. If successful, this Falcon 9 upgrade may be able to fly a third time in the near future.

SpaceX has not yet stepped up three times, but this is about to change. Following today's launch, the company's next flight is the SSO-A mission, a ride that will allow more than 60 small satellites to be sent into low Earth orbit. Several SpaceX officials said the flight would use a rocket that has already flown twice. It's a feat now possible that SpaceX is using its latest update to Falcon 9, the Block 5, designed to make it easier to reuse vehicles after a flight, with less renovation.

But first, today's satellite must fly. The payload is the Es'hail-2 satellite, intended to provide communication services in the Middle East and North Africa. It is primarily intended for use for government and commercial purposes, but amateur radio operators may also use this satellite. Es'hail-2 has two transponders that can connect to amateur radio from South America to Asia. This satellite is not the only one with this capability, but Es'hail-2 is in a particularly high orbit at 22,000 miles. This will make it the first satellite at this altitude to connect amateur radio from Brazil to India.

SpaceX launches Es'hail-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The company has a launch window that runs from 3:46 pm ET to 5:29 pm ET. Until now, the weather seems uncertain, with a 60% chance that conditions are favorable. SpaceX launch coverage will be broadcast 15 minutes before take-off; check again to see this rocket go into space for the second time.