A $210 million NASA mission to improve air pollution monitoring over North America is set to launch Thursday with an Intelsat communications satellite blasting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
Launching into a sun-splashed summertime afternoon sky, a previously-flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit from Florida’s east coast Friday with a U.S.-built, Bulgarian-owned television broadcasting satellite.
Flight controllers at NASA’s mission control center in Houston have completed the robotic swap out of a failed power distribution unit outside the International Space Station, clearing a hurdle ahead of Friday’s predawn launch from Cape Canaveral of a SpaceX supply ship.