Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship returns to Earth

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’s Falcon 9 rocket with 21 Starlink satellites on board will launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Station. Liftoff is no earlier than 7:44 p.m. PST (10:44 p.m. EST, 0344 UTC).

A powerful commercial communications satellite driven by plasma thrusters rode a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster away from Cape Canaveral early Monday, climbing into orbit to connect companies, homes, airplanes and ships across much of the Eastern Hemisphere.