Watch the Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A

SpaceX launch crews rolled out the company’s next Falcon 9 rocket to pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then lifted the two-stage launcher vertical for a hold-down engine firing Thursday in preparation for launch next week with a South Korean-owned commercial communications satellite.

With this mission, SpaceX has now launched 98 Falcon 9 rockets and two Falcon Heavy rockets this year. Liftoff of the OneWeb #20 mission happened at 10:13 p.m. PDT (1:13 a.m. EDT, 0513 UTC).

The mission will include the 1,800th Starlink satellite launched in 2025. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 10:04 a.m. PDT (1:04 p.m. EDT / 1704 UTC).