LOS ANGELES, May 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. private space firm SpaceX launched two new Earth-observing satellites for NASA and five commercial communications satellites for Iridium on a used Falcon 9 rocket in a ride-share mission on Tuesday.

The rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the state of California, at 12:47 p.m. PDT (1947 GMT).

The GRACE-FO satellites will be deployed approximately eleven minutes and thirty seconds after launch, followed by the deployment of five Iridium NEXT satellites beginning about an hour after launch.