Time-lapse: Falcon 9 lifted vertical on pad 39A (members only)

SpaceX hopes to launch Falcon 9 rockets from its two launch pads in Florida and its one in California on Saturday night. Liftoff of the Eutelsat 36D satellite from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 UTC), the opening of a nearly four-hour window.

The last in an older generation of spin-stabilized Chinese weather satellites launched Tuesday toward a perch more than 22,000 miles over the equator, the start of a mission of at least four years monitoring tropical cyclones and other weather systems across Africa and Asia.

Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo freighter loaded with over 5,000 pounds of crew provisions, equipment and science gear arrived at the International Space Station.