Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with 10 next-generation Iridium communications satellites. SpaceX’s live video coverage begins at approximately 8:22 a.m. EDT (1222 GMT; 5:22 a.m. PDT). Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Mission Reports
Suborbital test flight moves Blue Origin closer to launching people
The privately-developed New Shepard booster, designed and built by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, took off from a launch pad in West Texas, briefly flew into space with an instrumented capsule, and returned to a rocket-assisted landing Sunday in another test before humans climb aboard the suborbital spaceship.
Falcon 9
Pending test outcomes, NASA says SpaceX could launch astronauts in early March
A NASA official said Friday that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could be ready to ferry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station as soon as early March, pending the results from a major demonstration of the ship’s launch abort system this weekend, a pair of parachute drop tests, and space station crew schedules.