Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

The Starlink 15-5 was SpaceX’s 59th Falcon 9 launch of the year. Liftoff from pad 4 East at Vandneberg Space Force Base happened at 6:43 a.m. PDT (9:43 a.m. EDT, 1343 UTC).

This time-lapse video shows the “chopstick” mechanism lifting the Starship atop the Super Heavy booster Saturday ahead of the inaugural test flight of the fully-stacked rocket from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas.

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule could take off in October on its first unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a company official said recently, while SpaceX finishes up the investigation into the explosion of its Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test earlier this year.