Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, where a Falcon 9 rocket is set to undergo a static fire test Thursday in advance of a commercial satellite launch May 31.

The first upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, known as the ‘Block 5’, takes flight from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 11 May 2018.

Boeing and SpaceX hope to launch commercial crew ferry ships on long-awaited test flights later this year, but both companies face major challenges getting the spacecraft certified before late 2019 when seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft will no longer be easily available for NASA space station crews, officials told lawmakers Wednesday.