Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship returns to Earth

Days after launching astronauts for the first time, SpaceX is set to resume a speedy cadence of satellite launches Wednesday night with liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s next batch of Starlink broadband relay stations.

The mission was the 134th and final orbital launch from SpaceX in 2024. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened at 12:39 a.m. EST (0539 UTC) on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from the historic seaside launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday, powered a classified NRO spy satellite into space, then the launcher’s first stage descended to a vertical landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.