Time-lapse: Falcon 9 goes upright at launch pad 39A (members only)

The Starlink 6-70 mission will mark the 86th orbital launch from Florida and the 120th SpaceX orbital launch of the year. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 5:13 a.m. EST (1013 UTC).

The privately-funded, Israeli-built Beresheet spacecraft failed Thursday during its historic attempt to land on the moon, seeking to become the first mission to reach the lunar surface without significant government backing. The landing was expected to occur at 1925 GMT (3:25 p.m. EDT).

Hours after calling off a launch of a different rocket from a nearby launch pad, SpaceX’s launch team loaded a Falcon 9 rocket with propellant Saturday and fired its nine main engines on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, setting the stage for a liftoff with a South Korean military satellite as soon as Tuesday amid a busy stretch of missions for the California-based rocket company.