Shuttle Atlantis unwrapped ahead of public debut

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft glided to a smooth automated docking Monday night at the International Space Station, delivering four astronauts to join the three-person crew already on-board, boosting the size of the lab’s long-duration crew to seven for the first time.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket — stretching 215 feet long — are ready for rollout to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the launch of four astronauts Saturday night to the International Space Station.

NASA officials released a nearly five-year, $28 billion plan Monday to return astronauts to the surface of the moon before the end of 2024, but the agency’s administrator said the “aggressive” timeline set by the Trump administration last year hinges on Congress approving $3.2 billion in the next few months to kick-start development of new human-rated lunar landers.