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

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket is set for liftoff Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the heavy-lift launcher will head on an easterly course over the Atlantic Ocean atop nearly 5 million pounds of thrust.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Space Coast Wednesday evening with the SES 11/EchoStar 105 communications satellite, a video relay and data distribution platform jointly developed by SES and EchoStar.

Thirteen U.S.-built nanosatellites hitched a ride to space Tuesday with a sharp-eyed Indian Earth-imaging observatory at the top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.