Video: Animation of Vulcan launch

In a major shift, NASA is considering using two commercial launchers to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule and its European-built service module on a test flight around the moon next year, maintaining the lunar test flight’s schedule despite fresh delays in the development of the multibillion-dollar Space Launch System that jeopardize the heavy-lifter’s 2020 inaugural flight, the agency’s administrator said in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

This will be the first Cargo Dragon flight featuring a modified trunk that allows it to perform multiple orbital boosts of the International Space Station. SpaceX is targeting liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 UTC).

Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California raised a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad earlier this month in preparation for liftoff May 5 with NASA’s InSight lander heading to Mars.