Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Mike Sarafin, NASA’s lead Orion flight director, narrates animation depicting the Exploration Flight Test 1 from liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The milestone came less than seven years after launching its first batch of operational Starlink satellites. Liftoff of the Starlink 17-24 mission happened on Monday, March 16, at 10:19:09 p.m. PDT (1:19:09 a.m. EDT / 0519:09 UTC on Tuesday, Mar. 17).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted by a recycled first stage fired into the skies over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 15, and these photos show the start of the 229-foot-tall launcher’s journey into orbit.