Videos: Previewing SpaceX’s eighth International Space Station resupply launch

Maintaining a brisk flight rate three days after its last launch, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 booster powered by a reused first stage into orbit Wednesday evening from Florida with an Airbus-built communications satellite for SES and EchoStar.

The mission featured the 160th landing of a booster on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:20 a.m. PDT (10:20 a.m. EDT / 1420 UTC).

After several delays earlier this week, SpaceX conducted a hold-down test-firing of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Friday evening in a key test before launch next week on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.