Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship readied for station departure

Astra’s next small satellite launcher has shipped to Kodiak Island in Alaska for final preparations ahead of a test flight planned in early August, five months after the company’s first orbital rocket faltered before getting off the ground.

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket is being readied for liftoff Aug. 14 on a space station resupply run. The two-stage rocket completed a hold-down engine firing Thursday at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Trump administration is requesting $25.2 billion for NASA in fiscal 2021, a 12 percent increase that includes $3.3 billion to kickstart development of a human-rated lander for the Artemis moon program. Nearly half of the budget request, $12.3 billion, is devoted to new and ongoing projects focused on the return to the moon and eventual flights to Mars.