Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

SpaceX’s 50th Falcon 9 rocket flight took off from Florida’s Space Coast shortly after midnight Tuesday with the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite, firing into a moonlit night sky with 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

Some classified satellites might have hitched a ride with 19 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX from the company’s West Coast launch site on Thursday.

In this time-lapse video, the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon atop rolls to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time on January 3. The rocket was then lifted vertical for a series of fit checks and tests.