Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship returns to Earth

The Starlink 17-9 mission added another 24 broadband satellites to its low Earth orbit constellation of more than 8,300. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 11:06 a.m. PDT (2:06 p.m. EDT / 1806 UTC).

President Donald Trump signed a new NASA authorization bill Tuesday, the first such space policy framework since early in the Obama administration, that largely continues the space agency’s efforts to foster a commercial economy in Earth orbit and explore deep space, with an eventual goal of landing humans on Mars.

Putting new technology in the sky that will beam high-speed Internet to rural America, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral today to deploy the commercial EchoStar 19 satellite. Follow the ascent in our live journal.