Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

U.S. and Russian vehicles ferrying crews and cargo will continue traveling to and from the International Space Station this month, sustaining the orbiting lab in its 20th year of continuous human occupation amid an escalating pandemic on Earth.

The mission was the 30th Starlink launch of the year for SpaceX. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened on Thursday, April 24, at 9:52 p.m. EDT (0152 UTC).

A year-and-a-half after announcing plans to launch two private citizens on a flight around the moon using the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket and Dragon capsule, SpaceX posted a tweet late Thursday announcing apparently revised plans to launch a “private passenger” on a moon flight using SpaceX’s new BFR rocket.