Video: Falcon 9 fires up engines on pad 39A (members only)

Set to resume a brisk pace of launch activity after a nearly six-week respite, SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of a planned liftoff Monday with several tons of experiments and supplies for the International Space Station.

An Israeli-built moon lander aiming to become the first privately-funded mission reach another planetary body rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Thursday night aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, riding piggyback with an Indonesian communications spacecraft and an experimental U.S. Air Force space surveillance microsatellite.

SpaceX will make its latest attempt following scrubs due to ground systems issues and then poor weather. Liftoff from Pad A at Starbase is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CDT (7:30 p.m. EDT / 2330 UTC).