After static fire, Falcon 9 prepares to meet Inmarsat payload

Ten days after the last liftoff from historic launch pad 39A in Florida, another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its Merlin main engines for several seconds in a hold-down firing Thursday ahead of a planned expendable flight next week with an Inmarsat communications satellite. The two-stage rocket was filled with super-chilled, densified RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants in a mock countdown Thursday. SpaceX engineers monitored the computer-controlled countdown as the rocket’s engines were primed and fuel tanks pressurized for ignition. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 12)