Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with the fourth set of 10 next-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay fleet.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket will lift off Friday at 5:27 p.m. PST (8:27 p.m. EST; 0137 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
SpaceX will not attempt to recover the first stage on Friday’s mission.
Here’s another batch of photos from Saturday’s Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast with nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies heading for the International Space Station.
Ground crews at a long-dormant launch pad at Cape Canaveral are stacking surplus military missile motors for the Aug. 25 launch of a Minotaur 4 rocket with a satellite designed to track orbital traffic thousands of miles above Earth.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening in a critical milestone before liftoff with a commercial Thai communications satellite later in the week.