Watch the Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A

A commercial Dragon cargo craft launched June 29 departed the International Space Station and returned to Earth on Friday with nearly two tons of cargo and research samples.

The Starlink 6-104 mission added another 28 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:47 p.m. EST (0347 UTC).

NASA says it is interested in flying astronauts and scientists on commercial suborbital vehicles, like those being tested by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, to provide additional training and research opportunities augmenting missions to the orbiting International Space Station.