Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with three satellites

In a major shift, NASA is considering using two commercial launchers to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule and its European-built service module on a test flight around the moon next year, maintaining the lunar test flight’s schedule despite fresh delays in the development of the multibillion-dollar Space Launch System that jeopardize the heavy-lifter’s 2020 inaugural flight, the agency’s administrator said in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

Beginning the National Reconnaissance Office’s campaign of four launches in 2016 using boosters big and small to deploy a varied collection of new intelligence satellites, a Delta 4 rocket stands ready for liftoff before sun-up Wednesday from California.

A European-built communications satellite has arrived at Cape Canaveral for fueling and final launch preparations ahead of a planned late February liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster.