Photos: Falcon takes flight

With the SpaceX scrub earlier this week and the time needed to convert the Eastern Range over to the Delta 4, liftoff of that rocket carrying an internationally-purchased military communications satellite for the Air Force has been bumped to Saturday evening.

The mission launched after a six-day delay. Liftoff of the Starlink 15-3 mission from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 5:19 p.m. PDT (8:19 p.m. EDT, 0019 UTC).

As expected, NASA announced Wednesday that the first unpiloted test flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon astronaut ferry ship has slipped from later this month to March 2. The first unpiloted flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is now targeted for the April timeframe.