Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

For the fourth time this month, SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Space Coast with another 60 Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 4:28 a.m. EDT (0828 GMT) Wednesday. The Falcon 9’s booster landed on an offshore drone ship.

NASA announced Thursday it plans to purchase lunar soil from a commercial company, an effort the agency’s top official said is intended to set a precedent for the transfer of ownership of extraterrestrial material and stimulate a market harvesting resources from bodies throughout the solar system.

A replay of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launching on the NROL-45 satellite-deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.