Stats: Delta 4 history and manifest

A signals intercepter for the U.S. spy satellite agency was successfully launched into a high orbit over the top of the world by an Atlas 5 rocket on Saturday night.

The lunar operation marks the longest commercial mission on the Moon to date. Firefly Aerospace is in the midst of preparing for its next trip to the Moon, which is set to launch in 2026.

NASA will unveil the four crew members Monday who will fly around the moon on the first piloted flight of the agency’s Orion deep space capsule on the Artemis 2 mission as soon as late next year.