NASA Administrator speaks about Orion test flight

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine first stage engines for a brief hold-down firing Friday at Cape Canaveral, passing a key milestone before launch July 24 with a Dragon space station resupply ship.

Working under physical distancing requirements and other precautions against the coronavirus pandemic, range teams at Cape Canaveral are preparing for launches of Atlas 5 and Falcon 9 rockets from neighboring pads this weekend.

Bad weather offshore has forced SpaceX and NASA to delay Thursday’s planned launch of the Crew Dragon by a day. Better conditions are expected on Friday for a 5:49 a.m. EDT (0949 GMT) liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center.