Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

SpaceX said Tuesday it won’t perform a final countdown dress rehearsal this week for the giant new Starship launch vehicle, and could send the rocket — standing nearly 40 stories tall on its Texas launch pad — on an around-the-world test flight as soon as next week.

The spacecraft is Turkey’s first home-grown communications satellite. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 UTC).

SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 booster powered up to full throttle in a brief ignition at the company’s Central Texas test site this week as engineers prepare for the rocket’s return to flight as soon as mid-November with a European communications satellite.