PARIS — SpaceX now plans an inaugural flight of its Falcon Heavy rocket, with a SpaceX payload and no paying passengers, late this year and to begin commercial flights in early 2018 with an Arabsat telecommunications satellite, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.

In a June 22 appearance on the space show — http://bit.ly/2saRo0B — Shotwell said launch-pad availability in Florida is one reason the inaugural Falcon Heavy flight has slipped beyond mid-year.

“We should still lift off this year,” Shotwell . . .

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