The Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines briefly ignited at launch pad 39A in a standard pre-launch test. This is the second time this booster has test fired its engines on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The first stage first fired at launch complex 40 prior to the CRS-8 space station resupply mission in April last year. It is scheduled to be the first SpaceX rocket to launch a second time when it carries the SES 10 communications satellite into orbit later this week.
Falcon 9
Live coverage: SpaceX launches first upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket
SpaceX launched the first of the company’s upgraded generation of Falcon 9 launchers, known as Block 5, from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday at 4:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT). The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off with Bangladesh’s first communications satellite, and SpaceX recovered the rocket’s first stage on a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean.
Mission Reports