Q&A with Keith Gendreau, principal investigator of the first X-ray space communications experiment (members only)

With this launch, SpaceX is now one flight shy of tying the total number of Space Shuttle missions from this historic launch pad. This was the 81st flight of a Falcon rocket compared to the 82 total shuttle flights. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-51 mission happened at 5:26 p.m. EDT (2126 UTC).

A European Vega launcher failed Wednesday night around two minutes after liftoff from French Guiana and fell into the Atlantic Ocean, destroying an Airbus-built surveillance satellite for the United Arab Emirates.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from the Kennedy Space Center to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Saturday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying nearly 5,500 pounds of supplies and experiments.