Watch a time-lapse of the Falcon 9 rocket going vertical

SpaceX’s third Falcon Heavy rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center in a predawn launch Tuesday, delivering two dozen research and weather observation spacecraft into orbit on a marathon three-and-a-half mission for the U.S. Air Force. The mission included the successful landing of the Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters back at Cape Canaveral, and a SpaceX recovery boat netted part of the rocket’s payload fairing for the first time.

NASA officials gave approval Tuesday for SpaceX to begin regular crew rotation flights to the International Space Station with the launch of four astronauts set for Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, signaling a transition from development to operations for the human-rated Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:34 p.m. EDT (1634 GMT) Wednesday. The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage successfully landed on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.