Live coverage: Two Americans, one Russian launch to space station

The sampling mechanism on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is stuffed with specimens captured from asteroid Bennu earlier this week — so full that some of the rocks are floating out into space. Officials said Friday they will stow the samples inside the mission’s Earth return capsule sooner than planned to minimize the loss of asteroid material.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket roars off the pad with the Global Positioning System 2F-9 satellite. Photos by ULA.

NASA awarded the so-called ‘Lunar Terrain Vehicle Service’ contract and classified it as an “indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, milestone-based LTVS contract with firm-fixed-price task orders.” The agency said it “has a combined maximum potential value of $4.6 billion for all awards.”