Watch the Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A

NASA announced Thursday that Orbital ATK has begun negotiations to lease a disused section of Kennedy Space Center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and an Apollo-era launch platform for the company’s proposed next-generation rocket.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced on Tuesday that Artemis 2 will be delayed until Sept. 2025 and Artemis 3 until Sept. 2026. The additional time is needed both from a hardware readiness perspective as well as to answer outstanding questions about the heat shield.

Crowned with a European-built communications satellite designed to broadcast television over the Americas, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster lifted off Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A Wednesday at 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT).