Falcon 9 goes upright after sunrise in time-lapse video

Spectators on South Padre Island watch the Starship prototype end its test flight in a fiery crash landing.

Departing on three pillars of fire, the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off at 1:51 p.m. from Cape Canaveral for a classified national security satellite deployment.

Held down by heavy-duty restraints, a Falcon 9 rocket fired up its nine Merlin engines for more than three seconds Thursday evening in a key readiness test before launching with a commercial television broadcast satellite next week.