Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted a launch license for SpaceX’s deployment of 10 Iridium communications satellites next week after reviewing the company’s inquiry into a Falcon 9 rocket explosion in September, an agency spokesperson said Friday.

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket, made up of two previously-flown Falcon 9 boosters and a beefed up central core stage, made the trip to launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and was raised vertical Thursday for testing ahead of its first liftoff next month.

A Falcon 9 rocket is standing on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for liftoff Thursday to carry the SES 10 communications satellite into orbit on the first mission SpaceX has attempted to re-fly one of its used boosters.