Q&A with Claire Leon, director of launch enterprise directorate at SMC

The mission was scheduled to launch less than an hour before a Starlink flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff happened at 3:43 a.m. EDT (0743 UTC).

Moving closer toward launch Monday with a South Korean communications satellite, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine Merlin main engines Thursday on a launch pad in Florida in a key preflight readiness test.

United Launch Alliance has released views from cameras mounted aboard the company’s most recent Atlas 5 rocket launch showing the rocket’s blastoff from Cape Canaveral at dawn Aug. 8 with a U.S. Air Force communications satellite.