Live coverage: Falcon 9 soars into space with DSCOVR

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind.

Russian commander Oleg Kononenko, Canadian co-pilot David Saint-Jacques and NASA flight engineer Anne McClain closed out a 204-day mission in orbit Monday with an undocking from the International Space Station at 7:25 p.m. EDT (2325 GMT), followed by landing in Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz MS-11 capsule at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 GMT Tuesday).

A Falcon 9 rocket is to launch tonight with another batch of satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 11:15 p.m. EDT (0415 UTC).