Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is being readied for launch with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office early Sunday, the commercial launcher’s 33rd overall flight, and first dedicated to a U.S. government national security mission.

Closing out a five-week mission, a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft departed the International Space Station on Saturday. The spaceship will dive back into Earth’s atmosphere, deploy parachutes and splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 3:39 p.m. EDT (1939 GMT) about 265 miles west of Baja California.

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a launch license for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket set for blastoff Tuesday, giving the U.S. government’s regulatory green light for the heavy-lifter to dispatch Elon Musk’s used electric car on a one-way trip into deep space.