Live coverage: SpaceX launches its fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year

Two SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches will loft seven high-throughput broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPower constellation in 2021, SES announced this week.

The Starlink 17-9 mission added another 24 broadband satellites to its low Earth orbit constellation of more than 8,300. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 11:06 a.m. PDT (2:06 p.m. EDT / 1806 UTC).

The commercial Cygnus freighter carrying over 7,000 pounds of food, supplies and science experiments completed a flawless rendezvous with the International Space Station on Saturday morning. It was captured by the robotic arm at 6:51 a.m. EDT (1051 GMT).