Amazonas Nexus will then spend more than six months

 Amazonas Nexus will then spend more than six months making its way to geostationary orbit, about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth. Hispasat will perform a few weeks of checkouts with the spacecraft, then slip it into its final orbit and put the satellite to work providing internet service to broad swathes of the globe.

Amazonas Nexus "will cover the entire American continent, Greenland and the North and South Atlantic corridors and will be focused on connectivity services in remote areas and in air and maritime mobility environments," Hispasat wrote in a prelaunch statement.

"Hispasat has reached multiple business agreements to lease the long-term capacity [of] Amazonas Nexus with operators and service providers in the governmental and connectivity fields for the aviation sector and in remote areas," the company added.

Sunday's launch will be SpaceX's ninth already of 2023, keeping the company on pace to break its single-year launch record of 61, set in 2022.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.