Video: Falcon 9 rocket test-fired at pad 39A (members only)

A commercial Dragon supply freighter built and owned by SpaceX rocketed into a clear blue sky over Florida’s Space Coast Thursday with a menagerie of research experiments and holiday surprises heading for the International Space Station.

SpaceX crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California rolled out a Falcon 9 rocket and lifted it vertical atop its launch pad ahead of a planned blastoff Wednesday with a Spanish radar observation satellite and two test probes for a planned global broadband Internet network.

SpaceX launched one Starlink mission from Florida but plans for a back-to-back overnight mission from the west coast were dashed after the Falcon 9 flying from Vandenberg Space Force Base California was delayed to Friday.