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

SpaceX hopes to take a giant leap forward in rocket technology a few minutes after Friday’s scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 booster taking up 2.5 tons of critical supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station — including a critical docking adapter needed by future U.S. crew ships — broke apart in a shower of debris shortly after launch Sunday.

SpaceX will kick off a busy 2015 calendar playing catch-up, with liftoff of a Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station set for Tuesday after a delay from December.