Video: Falcon 9 rocket fires engines in pre-launch test (members only)

Tugged along a historic route leading to the launch pad where Yuri Gagarin took off 1961 to become the first person in space, a Soyuz rocket rolled out of its assembly hangar in Kazakhstan and stood up on its launch mount Sunday.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command announced that SpaceX and ULA would launch five and two missions respectively as part of the latest round of National Security Space Launch contract assignments.

SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship departed the International Space Station on Wednesday, fired rocket thrusters to brake out of orbit, and parachuted to a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with approximately 3,461 pounds of experiment samples and equipment.