Live coverage: Falcon 9 roars into orbit with Japanese satellite

An 11-hour practice countdown was completed Friday at Cape Canaveral’s launch complex 41 for the planned launch of an Atlas 5 rocket and Boeing’s Starliner capsule later this month. The rocket was loaded with super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in a full dress rehearsal for launch day.

SpaceX’s launch team fueled up a Falcon 9 rocket on a California launch pad Thursday, fired the booster’s nine Merlin engines, and passed a key preflight test for the first time since a Falcon 9 exploded during a similar practice countdown in September.

A Russian Proton rocket topped with a commercial U.S.-built communications satellite for AsiaSat is standing on a launch pad in Kazakhstan for liftoff Thursday.