Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

SpaceX conducted the first hold-down firing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for launch next week with Bangladesh’s first communications satellite.

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday at Cape Canaveral for the company’s next launch, which is set for takeoff Monday at around 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT). The rocket will launch with the next batch of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites, the company’s first launch since early August. There is an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for launch Monday.

A Falcon 9 rocket ignites its nine Merlin first stage engines on June 24 for a routine static test fire ahead of the planned launch of the tenth batch of Starlink broadband internet satellites.