Live coverage: Falcon 9 blasts off with X-37B mini-shuttle

SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship returned to to Earth on Sunday with more than 3,800 pounds of NASA cargo, research specimens and other hardware. The commercial capsule was released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 GMT), and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California occurred at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT).

SpaceX’s launch team loaded super-chilled liquid propellants into a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday and fired the booster’s nine first stage engines at Cape Canaveral, marching toward liftoff Monday with a NASA observatory built to find planets around other stars in our galactic neighborhood.

This is the first of three planned Falcon 9 missions Amazon booked for its internet relay satellites. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 UTC) from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.