Live coverage: New Horizons flyby target comes into focus

SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft, fixed to the forward end of a Falcon 9 rocket, emerged Thursday from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the quarter-mile journey to its launch mount at pad 39A, where liftoff is scheduled early Saturday on a critical test flight before astronauts strap into the ship later this year.

The effects of a global dust storm on Mars have been observed by NASA’s plutonium-powered Curiosity rover, which continues its scientific campaign as the thick veil of dust continues starving the aging Opportunity rover of solar energy on the other side of the planet.

The first hints of dramatic cliffs, chasms and craters are showing up in new imagery of Pluto and its Texas-sized moon Charon as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft prepares to bolt by the icy worlds Tuesday.