Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with the next batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites at 3:13 a.m. EST (0813 GMT) Thursday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The reusable first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX intends to cut the price of a Falcon 9 rocket launch by up to 30 percent when flying with reused first stage boosters, an achievement the company still hopes to demonstrate before the end of the year, SpaceX’s president said recently.

SpaceX test-fired a reused Falcon 9 booster Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, checking the rocket’s readiness for a planned liftoff Saturday with an Airbus-built commercial communications satellite.