Video: Falcon 9 stands at the launch pad

Two communications satellites owned by SES are booked to fly into orbit — possibly from South Texas — on a pair of Falcon 9 rockets in 2017, giving SpaceX two payloads that could be assigned to launch from the new commercial spaceport, officials said Wednesday.

Set to resume a brisk pace of launch activity after a nearly six-week respite, SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of a planned liftoff Monday with several tons of experiments and supplies for the International Space Station.

The mission was SpaceX’s 560th Falcon 9 rocket launch to date. SpaceX accomplished liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 9 at 3:10 a.m. EST (0810 UTC).