China’s Tiangong 1 space lab, home to two astronaut crews in 2012 and 2013, fell back to Earth uncontrolled Sunday, likely burning up over the Pacific Ocean as satellite trackers monitored the module’s gradual descent from orbit.
The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket occurred less than three hours after the planned Falcon Heavy launch. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-36 mission happened at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC).
The Falcon 9 booster for SpaceX’s next mission fired up briefly on a Cape Canaveral launch pad Sunday in a routine pre-flight test before a scheduled launch Friday night to kick off the final flight of the first version of the company’s Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station.