Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket conducts static fire test

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command announced that SpaceX and ULA would launch five and two missions respectively as part of the latest round of National Security Space Launch contract assignments.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with 51 small satellites, hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles heading into polar orbit on the Transporter 7 mission. Liftoff occurred at 11:48 p.m. PDT Friday (2:48 a.m. EDT; 0648 UTC Saturday).

Northrop Grumman test-fired a five-segment solid-fueled booster for NASA’s Space Launch System Wednesday at the company’s test facility in Promontory, Utah.