Video: Falcon 9 rocket fires up engines on launch pad (members only)

Check out more imagery of Saturday’s liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, including pictures from remote cameras at the launch pad and new video released by the U.S. Air Force.

With an international flair for collaboration, a military communications satellite jointly purchased by five allies was rocketed in space Saturday to further expand the U.S.-operated network that serves battlefield forces anywhere on Earth.

A Russian Soyuz booster and an automated Progress resupply ship reached their launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, two days before firing into orbit test out a new expedited rendezvous sequence that will culminate in the Progress spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station just three-and-a-half hours after launch.