Time-lapse video: The Falcon Heavy goes vertical again

Opening a new era in American spaceflight, a Falcon 9 rocket streaked into space early Saturday, boosting the company’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on an unpiloted test flight, the first launch of a commercially developed capsule intended to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Feb. 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the Spanish Paz radar observation satellite and two prototypes for a planned broadband Internet network.

Ten commercial Earth-imaging satellites are mounted on top of a Rocket Lab Electron launcher for liftoff Wednesday from New Zealand.