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

The Pentagon has awarded at least $162 million in contracts to Aerojet Rocketdyne and United Launch Alliance for development of the AR1 and BE-4 rocket engines, candidates to power the first stage of a next-generation rocket and replace the Russian-made engine currently flying on the Atlas 5 launcher.

As the internal investigation continues into the first stage performance trouble on the last Atlas 5 rocket launch, the next mission on the manifest has slipped to May 27.

SpaceX successfully launched 60 more Starlink Internet satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral at 10:05 a.m. EST (1505 GMT) Monday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket powered by a thrice-flown first stage booster.