Time-lapse: Watch the Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 roll to the launch pad (members only)

Going with a philosophy that favors incremental testing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX officials said Friday that eleven mini-satellites for Orbcomm’s data relay business will fly on the company’s first mission since a launch failure in June.

SpaceX broke ground on a new commercial spaceport on the shores of South Texas, committing to the construction of the world’s first privately-owned satellite launch pad scheduled to be operational as soon as late 2016.

A rocket recovery team positioned off Florida’s East Coast is standing by for liftoff Sunday of a Falcon 9 launcher with a space weather satellite, but the demanding trajectory of the flight adds more unknowns to the company’s dicey endeavor to land the booster on a ship at sea.