Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship returns to Earth

Images taken inside SpaceX facilities at Cape Canaveral and released by NASA Thursday show the Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 booster assigned to an in-flight abort test of the new human-rated spaceship later this year, a prerequisite before astronauts climb aboard for a mission to the International Space Station.

The Starlink 15-6 mission will add another 26 satellites into SpaceX’s low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff occurred from pad 4E at 6:54 p.m. PDT (9:54 p.m. EDT, 0154 UTC).

Richard “Dick” Gordon, a Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut who pioneered spacewalking procedures and orbited the moon, died at his home this week in California. He was 88.