Photos: Falcon 9 breaks apart en route to ISS

A commercial Dragon spacecraft glacially approached the International Space Station on Wednesday, allowing a robotic arm controlled by Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai to reach out and grapple the supply ship as it soared 250 miles over Africa, completing SpaceX’s 14th mission to the research complex, and the second by the same capsule.

Firing through a veil of fog blanketing California’s Central Coast, a Falcon 9 launcher climbed into orbit Wednesday with 10 more satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay constellation, pushing the upgraded network closer to completion as SpaceX accomplished another landing of the rocket’s first stage booster.

SpaceX’s launch of the Starlink 6-56 mission will move the company past the total number of Space Shuttle Program missions from Launch Complex 39A. Liftoff is set for 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 UTC).