SpaceX launches 53 satellites

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – A SpaceX rocket carrying 53 satellites for the Starlink internet constellation blasted off from California on Friday.

The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07 p.m., and minutes later the first stage landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean while the second stage continued toward low Earth orbit.

Satellite deployment was scheduled to occur about an hour later.

Starlink is a space-based system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has hundreds of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 340 miles.

Gamblers pump sports profits

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Americans have bet more than $125 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the four years since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it.

On Saturday’s anniversary of the decision in a case brought by New Jersey, two-thirds of states in the country have legalized sports betting.

In just four years, the industry has worked itself into the daily lives of millions of Americans – from those who plunk down money hoping for a certain outcome to those who watch TV broadcasts with odds calculations to those struggling with gambling problems.

You don’t have to be a gambler – or even a sports fan – to be affected: The industry tsunami of advertising is practically impossible to avoid, particularly on TV and radio but in other media as well.

From wire reports