Photos: Falcon takes flight

NASA officials said Tuesday the weekend test-firing of the Space Launch System moon rocket’s core stage was cut short by an out-of-limits parameter in a hydraulic system for gimbaling, or vectoring, one of its engines. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told Spaceflight Now engineers are “feeling pretty good” about the data gathered during the shortened test-firing, and managers may decide to ship the SLS core stage to the Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations without re-attempting the planned eight-minute hot fire.

A total of 11 spacecraft will be deployed beginning about 1.5 hours after liftoff. SpaceX is aiming to launch the mission from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 23 at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT, 1813 UTC).

The first official launch weather outlook issued Tuesday by U.S. Air Force meteorologists predicts an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for the predawn liftoff Saturday of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on a test flight to the International Space Station.