Drone’s view of Sunday’s SpaceX rocket landing

SpaceX fired up nine Merlin main engines at the bottom of a previously-flown Falcon 9 booster Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, running the rocket through a practice countdown before a scheduled liftoff Jan. 18 with a Crew Dragon capsule to test the human-rated ship’s high-altitude abort capability.

The flight was delayed another day as Tropical Storm Bertha was expected to make landfall in Texas on Thursday. Liftoff of the Starship Flight 13 mission is scheduled during a 90-minute window that opens on Friday, July 24, at 5:45 p.m. CDT (6:45 p.m. EDT / 2245 UTC).

The milestone comes as a result of the 34th dedicated Starlink launch of the year for SpaceX. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 8:53 p.m. EDT (0053 UTC).