Photos: Falcon 9 rocket soars into space, lands back at Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is eligible to propose using its next-generation Starship vehicle to carry NASA robotic science payloads to the lunar surface, the U.S. space agency announced Monday, on missions that could precede future Starship flights with people on-board. SpaceX is one of five companies NASA selected Monday to join a roster of commercial transportation providers to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstration packages to the moon as soon as 2022.

SpaceX raised a 215-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, shortly after the launcher rolled out of the company’s hangar with a Crew Dragon spaceship to ferry four astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA officials say the International Space Station’s logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver supplies on time this year.