Live coverage: Dragon supply ship back on Earth

A Falcon 9 rocket launching an Argentine Earth-observing satellite streaked across the skies of Southern California on Sunday night, then its booster stage returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base for an on-target landing, the first by SpaceX on the West Coast.

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket powered off launch pad 39A at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT) Tuesday on its inaugural test flight, and we captured the launcher’s spectacular liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site around 3 miles from the pad.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded in the final minutes of a simulated countdown at Cape Canaveral on Thursday, destroying the booster and an Israeli communications satellite valued at nearly $200 million.