Falcon 9 goes upright after sunrise in time-lapse video

A Falcon 9 rocket ignites its nine Merlin first stage engines on June 24 for a routine static test fire ahead of the planned launch of the tenth batch of Starlink broadband internet satellites.

Stratolaunch said Friday that the company has “transitioned ownership” a year after the death of Paul Allen, the company’s billionaire founder who funded the construction of the world’s largest airplane for an airborne satellite launcher.

SpaceX’s final planned Crew Dragon test flight before astronauts ride the commercial spaceship into orbit is scheduled for Saturday, when an unpiloted crew capsule will fire off the top of a Falcon 9 rocket shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to test the craft’s in-flight emergency escape capability.