Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

SpaceX’s fired the engines of its Falcon Heavy rocket at launch pad 39A at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Wednesday. The crucial pre-launch engine test has been repeatedly delayed since the rocket returned to the launch pad earlier this month.

The Proba-3 mission is billed by the European Space Agency as “the world’s first precision formation flying machine.” Liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India is set for Thursday, Dec. 5, at 4:12 p.m. IST (5:42 a.m. EST, 1042 UTC).

Overcoming a dynamic and stormy weather pattern in Central Florida, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Israeli-owned Amos 17 commercial communications satellite Tuesday at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT).