Video: Last minute technical problem scrubs Falcon 9 launch

SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket Friday, this time to deliver 56 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 UTC). The first stage booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

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.

Mike Suffredini, manager of NASA’s International Space Station program, is stepping down after 10 years overseeing the lab’s final assembly and transition to post-shuttle operations, the agency said Wednesday. Kirk Shireman, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, will take over as program manager.