Photos: Falcon 9 breaks apart en route to ISS

The mission, dubbed USSF-153 mission, launched an undisclosed number of satellites for the U.S. Space Force. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 8:42 a.m. PDT (1142 a.m. EDT / 1542 UTC).

An Airbus-owned, German-built outdoor science deck is set for launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, heading for the International Space Station to make the orbiting research outpost more accessible for commercial space experiments.

Opening a new era in American spaceflight, a Falcon 9 rocket streaked into space early Saturday, boosting the company’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on an unpiloted test flight, the first launch of a commercially developed capsule intended to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.