Video: Falcon 9 launch replays

For the second time in a year, a large spent Chinese rocket stage intentionally left in orbit is heading for an unguided plunge back into Earth’s atmosphere Saturday or Sunday somewhere between 41.5 degrees north and south latitude.

The first of up to seven United Launch Alliance missions lifted off Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a Delta 4-Heavy launcher fired into orbit with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engines with a U.S. government spy satellite.

A Falcon 9 rocket ignites its nine Merlin first stage engines on June 24 for a routine static test fire ahead of the planned launch of the tenth batch of Starlink broadband internet satellites.