Live coverage: Soyuz MS-14 docks at space station

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft emerged from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to historic Launch Complex 39A, ready for final testing before liftoff on the first U.S. mission to carry astronauts into orbit in nearly nine years.

Watch an Atlas 5 rocket launch the EchoStar 19 satellite on December 19, 2016. This view was captured by Spaceflight Now’s camera at the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Press Site.

SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket booster for launch Monday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a record-setting mission with 64 smallsats on-board that will also mark the launch provider’s first use of the same first stage for a third flight.