Live coverage: SpaceX launches communications satellite for Qatar

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft emerged from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to historic Launch Complex 39A, ready for final testing before liftoff on the first U.S. mission to carry astronauts into orbit in nearly nine years.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite into orbit 35 minutes later.

A sophisticated combat-ready U.S. military missile warning satellite moved to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, ready for liftoff Monday afternoon.