Live coverage: SpaceX prepares for next Falcon 9 launch

Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing subsidiary, built two small satellites awaiting launch Thursday night on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket on a mission to test the effectiveness of a drag-inducing device that could help remove spacecraft from orbit.

A Spanish-owned, U.S.-built commercial communications satellite climbed into orbit early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral on the 50th flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launching on a 15-year mission to relay video, data and broadband signals across the Americas, Europe and North Africa.

A wide-angle view of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket test firing at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A during final preparations for it scheduled blastoff with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite.