Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches

Launch companies and U.S. Space Force range officials at Cape Canaveral are reassessing long-standing weather rules, looking at beefing up rocket defenses against lightning, and considering strategies to prepare for two different launch windows on a given day to guard against weather delays, something SpaceX may demonstrate with a Falcon 9 launch early Thursday.

Set to fly in its most powerful configuration with five solid rocket boosters, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad Tuesday in preparation for a planned blastoff two days later with a U.S. military communications satellite.

The Starlink 6-63 mission falls on the fifth anniversary of Starlink v0.9, the first dedicated Starlink mission, on May 23, 2019. Liftoff Thursday is set for 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 UTC).