Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with three Earth observation satellites for Canada’s Radarsat Constellation Mission.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket will lift off Wednesday at 7:17 a.m. PDT (10:17 a.m. EDT; 1417 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster, which previously completed a launch and landing in March, will return for a propulsive touchdown at Vandenberg around eight minutes later.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 GMT) Thursday with the U.S. military’s next GPS navigation satellite. The mission was delayed more than a month after a previous countdown was aborted seconds before liftoff.
A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo-delivery spacecraft for the International Space Station.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket stands atop Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on the eve of Friday’s WorldView 4 mission.