Live coverage: Orion lands in Pacific

Joining the live video podcast on Friday, April 12, are Elizabeth Howell, staff writer for Space.com, and Bill Harwood, space consultant for CBS News. The show begins at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC) on the Spaceflight Now YouTube channel.

Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, announced late Sunday that it has reached a deal valued at $4.4 billion to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne, a supplier of engines to NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas, Delta, and Vulcan rockets.

Rocket Lab’s second mission of 2021 lifted off at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) Monday from New Zealand carrying six small satellites for customers in Australia and the United States, along with a test platform for a NASA small satellite mission to the moon launching later this year.