Live coverage: Dragon completes space station resupply flight

Vaulting into a starry sky over Florida’s Space Coast, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off early Sunday with a Japanese video and data relay satellite, then stuck a landing on a barge stationed nearly 400 miles east of Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday afternoon at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, clearing a major hurdle before it launches Saturday night — weather permitting — with a four-person crew heading for the International Space Station.

The Starlink 17-8 mission was just the seventh new booster for the company out of more than 100 launches this year. SpaceX achieved liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:51 p.m. PDT (11:51 p.m. EDT / 0351 UTC).