Live coverage: Two-man crew departs space station, returns home

The four RS-25 engines at the bottom of NASA’s first Space Launch System core stage shut down about a minute into a ground test-firing Saturday that was supposed to last more than eight minutes.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket will deliver a Cygnus supply ship into orbit Thursday to begin a pursuit of the International Space Station.

United Launch Alliance teams ran through an 11-hour countdown Friday at Cape Canaveral to rehearse procedures before the first flight of a modified Atlas 5 rocket with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule Dec. 20.