Photos: Atlas 5 powers NRO payload into the night

Nearly a decade in the making, NASA and SpaceX have set May 27 as the target launch date for the first crewed space mission to launch into orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

The Federal Communications Commission has granted a request by SpaceX to begin launching spacecraft for the company’s Starlink broadband network to a lower orbit than originally planned, overruling protests by competitors and clearing a major regulatory hurdle before the launch of the first batch of Internet satellites from Cape Canaveral in May.

These video highlights released by the Indian Space Research Organization show the launch campaign to prepare for liftoff of the Chandrayaan 2 moon mission aboard a GSLV Mk.3 rocket.