SpaceX conducts engine test fire for communications satellite launch (members only)

A little more than a year after the Falcon Heavy rocket’s first test flight, SpaceX teams on Florida’s Space Coast are readying the world’s most powerful operational launcher for its second mission Thursday with a commercial communications satellite.

Take an aerial 4K video tour of the Crew Dragon atop the Falcon 9 rocket on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center during earlier pre-launch testing.

Space station flight engineer Jeff Williams will send commands Thursday to pump air into an experimental soft-sided module developed by commercial space habitat builder Bigelow Aerospace, expanding the structure to four times its current size in a stepping stone to future orbital destinations. Live video begins at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT).