Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

The launch of a NASA spacecraft designed to smash into an asteroid to try out a technique that could protect Earth from threatening space rocks has slipped from July until November, at the earliest, after development delays partially caused by coronavirus-related work slowdowns.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley may spend more time on the International Space Station than originally planned when they ride SpaceX’s new human-rated Dragon spacecraft into orbit on its first crewed test flight, a space agency official said Friday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT) with 60 more Starlink internet satellites. SpaceX successfully recovered the first stage booster on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.