Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

The Starlink 9-17 mission featured the 350th booster landing to date. Liftoff happened at 6:50 a.m. PDT (9:50 a.m. EDT, 1350 UTC).

SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket booster for launch Monday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a record-setting mission with 64 smallsats on-board that will also mark the launch provider’s first use of the same first stage for a third flight.

A suborbital rocket booster built by Blue Origin, an entrepreneurial space firm founded by Internet tycoon Jeff Bezos, streaked into space in the skies over West Texas and descended to a pinpoint propulsive touchdown on a landing pad, the company announced Tuesday.