Drone’s view of Sunday’s SpaceX rocket landing

NASA has ordered a second commercial crew ferry ship from SpaceX, NASA announced Friday, as the agency continues its on-going push to develop U.S.-built spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, ending sole reliance on Russian Soyuz vehicles.

Space station commander Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken floated back outside Tuesday for their fourth spacewalk in less than a month, completing preparations for future upgrades including the eventual installation of an airlock that will allow commercial experiments to be moved into and out of vacuum as required.

The Saturday night launch included another batch of 20 Starlink satellites that include Direct to Cell capabilities. The Starlink 9-13 mission lifted off from pad 4E at 9:25 p.m. PST (12:25 a.m. EST, 0525 UTC).