Shuttle Atlantis unwrapped ahead of public debut

SpaceX conducted its first launch from Florida in more than two months Thursday, when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center with the Qatari Es’hail 2 communications satellite at 3:46 p.m. EST (2046 GMT). The Falcon 9’s reused first stage landed on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The core booster from the Falcon Heavy rocket that launched Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida tipped over in rough seas after landing on an offshore drone ship, SpaceX officials said Monday.

Fully fueled for a flight to the International Space Station later this month, SpaceX transferred the Crew Dragon “Resilience” spaceship Thursday to a hangar near pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for attachment to its Falcon 9 launcher.