SpaceX to Orbit the World’s First All-Electric Satellites

A Space Exploration Technologies rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday to put a pair of the world's first all-electric communications satellites into orbit, Reuters reports.

The probes, built by Boeing and owned by Paris-based Eutelsat Communications and Bermuda-based ABS, are outfitted with lightweight, all-electric engines, rather than conventional chemical propulsion systems, to reach and maintain orbit.

That enabled two spacecraft to be launched aboard one medium-sized Falcon 9 rocket.

"The value of electrical propulsion is that it allows the satellite operator to need much less fuel than when the satellite has chemical propulsion," Eutelsat chief executive Michel de Rosen said in an interview before launch.

Eutelsat's spacecraft will become part of a 35-member network providing a range of mobile, internet, video and other communications services.