SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch for the U.S. Air Force will take a major step closer to liftoff with a hold-down engine firing at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The static fire test is scheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, followed by liftoff with a cluster of experimental satellites and weather monitoring craft June 24.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired through a dense shroud of coastal fog and climbed into orbit Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, deploying a trio of radar observation satellites to begin a $900 million mission surveying the Arctic, maritime waters, forests and farmland for the Canadian government.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:17:10 a.m. EDT (7:17:10 a.m. PDT; 1417:10 GMT) Wednesday with the Radarsat Constellation Mission for the Canadian government. The Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed back at Vandenberg around eight minutes later.
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