Video: Atlas 5 rocket launches space station cargo mission

NASA has selected six companies to work on designs for deep space habitat modules that could be used by astronauts living and working near the moon as technology is developed for eventual flights to Mars, the agency announced Tuesday.

NOAA’s JPSS 1 weather satellite is enshrouded inside the nose fairing of a Delta 2 rocket, awaiting liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a seven-year mission to collect data to improve global weather forecasts.

A critical test-firing of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket in Mississippi ended just 67 seconds after it began Saturday, well short of a planned eight-minute burn that was supposed to clear the way for the space agency to finally ship the rocket’s core stage to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations.