Video: Press site view of Falcon 9’s launch with the Es’hail 2 satellite (members only)

The mission is the first of the year for NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 rocket is lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 UTC) on Feb. 8.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed away from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, and its first stage booster returned to a drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean after sending a heavyweight commercial communications satellite toward orbit for Telesat.

An atmospheric test model of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane is being readied for tow and landing tests at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California this spring.