Live coverage: SpaceX prepares for next Falcon 9 launch

The U.S. military’s Space Development Agency, established in 2019 to fast-track new national security capabilities in orbit, plans to launch the first 10 satellites for a constellation of hundreds of missile tracking and data relay spacecraft Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California.

The Starlink 17-22 mission launched 25 broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 9:03:09 a.m. PDT (12:03:09 pm EDT / 1603:09 UTC).

While NASA and Boeing engineers investigate the cause of a software error that cut short the first orbital test flight of the Starliner crew capsule last month, ground teams have returned the spaceship from its landing site in New Mexico back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Preliminary inspections indicate the reusable spacecraft weathered its first trip into orbit better than expected, and Boeing teams are confident the ship will need only “minimal refurbishment” before its next launch with astronauts.