Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Taking a lesson from a launch mishap last June, SpaceX wrote coded commands for future Dragon cargo capsules to deploy their parachutes for an emergency landing in the event of rocket failures, starting with Friday’s resupply flight to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket rolled out of its hangar and up the ramp to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then was raised vertical at the seaside launch complex early Monday in preparation for a late-night liftoff with two dozen weather observation and technology demonstration satellites.

SpaceX and NASA launched a planet-hunting satellite Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, two days after calling off a launch attempt to conduct additional guidance, navigation and control analyses. Liftoff occurred at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT), and the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.