Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

China’s heaviest rocket has rolled to its launch pad for liftoff Thursday with the country’s first Mars landing mission, an ambitious attempt to place an orbiter around the Red Planet and a robotic rover on the Martian surface in early 2021.

The Falcon 9 rocket flew in a south-easterly trajectory once its lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The mission launched at 6:15 p.m. PDT (9:15 p.m. EDT, 0115 UTC).

United Launch Alliance technicians were allowed to return to the Atlas 5 pad Tuesday as firefighters continued to wage air and ground campaigns against the wildfire burning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.