Live coverage: Dragon cargo craft arrives at space station

The pre-launch news conference for the Jason 3 ocean altimetry mission, scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (Membership required.)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the prime contractor for Japan’s H-2B rocket, said Friday that engineers concluded a fire on the launch pad during a countdown earlier this month was most likely sparked by static electricity and stimulated by oxygen. The H-2B rocket launch has been rescheduled for Tuesday to start a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s senior director of satellite engineering said following regulatory approval, the DTC constellation will allow texting at the onset and data usage beginning in 2025. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-1 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 5:02 a.m. EST (1002 UTC).