Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

SpaceX’s launch of a cluster of communications satellites for Orbcomm, set for as soon as next weekend, holds the headlines, but the company’s Falcon 9 rocket could fly at least four times in the next two months, assuming smooth launch campaigns and no glitches.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, powered by a previously-flown booster, lifts off from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:27 p.m. EDT (2227 GMT) on March 30, 2017, carrying the SES 10 communications satellite. The launch marked the first time SpaceX has reused the first stage of one of its Falcon 9 rockets.

This photo gallery shows the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, already encapsulated in the 18-foot-diameter nose cone, being lifted atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 3-East pad. This milestone was achieved on Aug. 27.