Photos: Delta 4 lights up the sky for night owl launch

Near the end of a ground-shaking test firing of Northrop Grumman’s solid-propellant Castor 600 rocket motor — the first stage of a new booster being designed to launch spy satellites and other national security payloads — a major part of the rocket’s big nozzle appeared to break apart, littering the test site with shards of debris.

The Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket roll to the launch pad on a foggy Florida morning before going upright shortly before sunset later in the day.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that a “relatively small” methane leak caused the explosion of the company’s latest Starship test rocket last week on an experimental flight over South Texas.