Photos: Cargo run to the space station begins

NASA has ordered four additional launches to deliver cargo to the International Space Station in 2017 — three from SpaceX and one from Orbital ATK — to cover the research lab’s logistics needs until a new set of resupply contracts take effect.

Narrated animation explains the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket ascending to space with the NROL-37 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office through T+plus 6 minutes, 30 seconds before going into a news blackout.

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, keeping pace for a launch scheduled next Thursday, April 23, with the next batch of 60 Starlink broadband Internet satellites.