Watch a time-lapse of the Crew Dragon access arm installation (members only)

On its second flight, SpaceX’s mammoth Falcon Heavy rocket hurled an Arabsat communications satellite the size of a school bus nearly one-quarter the way to the moon Thursday, days after NASA’s administrator identified the privately-developed rocket as a backup to the agency’s behind-schedule Space Launch System for sending astronauts back to the lunar surface.

A startup company named i-Space became the first Chinese private firm to achieve orbit Thursday with a successful launch of a light-class Hyperbola 1 booster.

The privately-funded Israeli Beresheet lunar lander is ready for its historic mission to the moon, aiming to become the first space probe to land on another planetary body without government funding.