Video: SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket at pad 40 (members only)

The Starlink 10-15 mission came a day after SpaceX launched a trio of spacecraft to study the effects of the Sun. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 4:39 a.m. EDT (0839 UTC).

Nine Merlin main engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) Friday, April 17, during a hold-down test-firing on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

International Space Station managers have named crew members to future expeditions to the research lab in 2017 and 2018, including the first German commander of a space mission and Canada’s third astronaut to fly a long-duration residency on the complex.