Photos: Falcon takes flight

NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon.

More than two dozen satellites from the U.S. military, NASA and research institutions will ride into orbit on SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket launch, a mission currently scheduled for liftoff in June, a military spokesperson said.

These photos show the June 12 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with three Earth-observing satellites for Canada’s Radarsat Constellation Mission.