Live coverage: 400th Proton rocket takes off with Russian satellite

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket took off on its inaugural test launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT). The high-power launcher successfully boosted Elon Musk’s electric Tesla sports car into deep space as a shakedown for future Falcon Heavy missions.

The Russian Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft and booster rocket were rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday in preparation for liftoff Thursday at 3:20 p.m. EST (2020 GMT) on a two-day trek to the International Space Station.

SpaceX launched the first full-scale Starship and Super Heavy rocket from South Texas at 8:33 a.m. CDT (9:33 a.m. EDT; 1333 UTC Thursday). The nearly 40-story-tall rocket, the largest ever built, lifted off from the Starbase launch complex and flew downrange before veering out of control and exploding about four minutes into the flight.