Video: Falcon 9 test-fired before space station cargo launch (members only)

This up-close sequence of photos shows the Falcon Heavy rocket lifting off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with nearly 5 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust.

NASA and SpaceX officials have said little this week about the apparent explosion of a Crew Dragon capsule Saturday during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and members of a safety advisory panel said Thursday they will be patient as investigators review high-speed imagery, telemetry data and wreckage to determine the cause of the accident.

A refurbished SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship linked up with the International Space Station early Saturday more than 260 miles above Earth, delivering four veteran astronauts to the orbiting research complex and temporarily raising the lab’s crew complement to 11.