Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Climbing into a clear night sky, a Falcon 9 rocket soared into space early Thursday with the EchoStar 23 commercial communications satellite from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT) Tuesday on the company’s first mission dedicated to the newly-established U.S. Space Force. The Falcon 9 carried a GPS navigation satellite into orbit.

The three astronauts and cosmonaut are scheduled to undock from the space station at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and splashdown off the coast of California at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 UTC).