Telespazio, a joint venture between Italian defence and aerospace group Leonardo and French peer Thales, has signed an agreement with Elon Musk's SpaceX to commercialise the services of its satellite unit Starlink,

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Tuesday night with 20 Starlink satellites, including some with direct-to-cell capabilities that will improve access to text and voice data on Earth.

While in the past months SpaceX has been launching Group 6 satellites from Cape Canaveral, Tuesday marked the first batch of Group 8 satellites launched from the Space Coast. With this launch aiming for a different orbit, it traveled in a northeast trajectory.

SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit this evening (May 31). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the broadband craft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today, during a nearly three-hour window that opens at 7:47 p.m. EDT (2347 GMT).

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – SpaceX successfully sent up yet another launch of its Starlink communications satellites on Tuesday evening. In a release, the company announced that the 20 satellites were sent into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff happened at 10:16 p.m.

The constellation of satellites is designed to provide broadband internet services around the world, particularly in rural areas that are poorly served by other networks. Under the deal, Telespazio will integrate Starlink into its connectivity network,