Photos: Falcon takes flight

Running several days late after a series of technical and weather delays, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:17 a.m. PST (9:17 a.m. EST; 1417 GMT) with the Spanish-owned Paz radar observation satellite and two prototype payloads for SpaceX’s planned Starlink broadband satellite network.

The mission will test a host of changes made to both the launch vehicle and the launch infrastructure as SpaceX prepares to support the Artemis 3 mission in 2027.

A Falcon 9 rocket powered by a first stage booster recovered after a launch in July is being readied for another flight Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.