Falcon 9 goes upright after sunrise in time-lapse video

A previously-flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster conducted a test-firing Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of a planned launch Oct. 7 with an Airbus-built communications satellite made for SES and EchoStar.

A small communications satellite built by the German company OHB — a payload so secret that no one has officially disclosed its name or end user — is set to ride a Rocket Lab Electron launcher into orbit Saturday from New Zealand.

The launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the first to the 10th shell of the Starlink constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 happened at 9:56 p.m. EDT (0156 UTC).