Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA’s Psyche on mission to a metal asteroid

The slide system differs notably from the slide wire basket system used over at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said pad 40 will be ready for astronaut launches this year.

The mission carried 70 payloads to low Earth orbit, including three orbital transfer vehicles and re-entry capsules. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened on Monday, June 23, at 2:25 p.m. PDT (5:25 p.m. EDT, 2125 UTC).

SpaceX called off a scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 rocket about a half-hour before liftoff from Cape Canaveral Monday due to strong upper level winds, and officials aim to try again to send 60 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Wednesday after bypassing a planned launch attempt Tuesday due to poor weather in the offshore booster recovery area.