Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

The Starlink 9-14 mission launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base is also set to feature the 300th successful SpaceX droneship booster landing. Liftoff from pad 4 East happened at 7:05 p.m. PST (10:05 p.m. EST, 0305 UTC).

A commercial Dragon spacecraft glacially approached the International Space Station on Wednesday, allowing a robotic arm controlled by Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai to reach out and grapple the supply ship as it soared 250 miles over Africa, completing SpaceX’s 14th mission to the research complex, and the second by the same capsule.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. PDT (8:37 a.m. EDT; 1237 GMT) Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff.