Q&A with Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO

The next liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has been reset for no earlier than Feb. 8, NOAA and NASA officials said Tuesday, apparently to give the launch provider more time to prepare for the mission.

A Falcon 9 rocket launching an Argentine Earth-observing satellite streaked across the skies of Southern California on Sunday night, then its booster stage returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base for an on-target landing, the first by SpaceX on the West Coast.

In another first on Mars, an instrument inside NASA’s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the planet’s atmosphere, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts “live off the land” by generating their own rocket fuel and breathing air.