Live views of launch pad 39A (members only)

The four astronauts preparing to ride SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” into orbit climbed aboard their spaceship Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in a practice run for a launch to the International Space Station planned Saturday night, while mission managers monitored weather and sea conditions in recovery areas across the Atlantic Ocean.

A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday.

Rumbling into the sky from a historic NASA-owned launch pad, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket — the world’s most powerful present-day launcher — flew for the first time Tuesday, dispatching a road-worn electric Tesla sports car with a spacesuit-clad mannequin nicknamed “Starman” on an interplanetary journey that will reach beyond the orbit of Mars.