Live coverage: Veteran three-man crew docks with space station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT) Wednesday with two Boeing-built communications payloads for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite. A secondary objective to recover the first stage offshore in the Atlantic Ocean failed.

There were more successful space launches in 2014 than in any year since 1992, with Russia, the United States and China responsible for more than 80 percent of global launch activity.

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket arrived at launch pad 39A Thursday for a customary hold-down engine firing. Liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast is targeted for Sunday, weather permitting.