Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast on its third try, United Launch Alliance’s Delta 2 rocket lifted off Saturday with NOAA’s JPSS 1 polar-orbiting weather satellite.

The mission was SpaceX’s 480th Falcon 9 rocket launch to date. Launch teams completed the liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 9:57 a.m. PDT (12:57 p.m. EDT, 1657 UTC).

Running through a practice countdown and hold-down engine firing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket passed a key checkpoint Thursday ahead of liftoff next week with the U.S. Air Force’s fifth X-37B spaceplane flight, a mission that will come with several firsts.