STS-135: The final shuttle launch

A Falcon 9 rocket carried 60 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Thursday after swapping places with another Starlink mission SpaceX’s fast-paced launch schedule. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT).

NASA and Northrop Grumman managers at the Kennedy Space Center decided Tuesday to press ahead with final preparations to launch a NASA scientific research satellite early Wednesday aboard an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket off Florida’s east coast.

A European Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled for blastoff  Tuesday from a jungle launch pad in South America with two geostationary telecom payloads — one owned by a Saudi Arabian operator and built in Colorado by Lockheed Martin, and another for India’s space agency.