Watch time-lapse of Falcon Heavy going upright (members only)

A light scanner aboard NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite sensitive to city lights, wildfires and volcanic eruptions has returned views of Puerto Rico before and after the passage of Hurricane Maria, showing the island’s electrical grid ravaged in the aftermath of the storm.

Prior to launch, SpaceX sent 656 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit so far this year. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-55 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:37 p.m. EDT (0237 UTC).

China’s Long March 5 rocket — the country’s most powerful launcher — is set for its third flight Friday on a critical validation mission after a core stage engine failure doomed a launch in 2017 and forced a two-and-a-half-year investigation and redesign effort.