Orion abort test post-launch briefing (members only)

A Falcon 9 launcher lifted off from Cape Canaveral Tuesday at 9:13 p.m. EST (0213 GMT Wednesday) with 60 more Starlink broadband satellites.

The White House’s $19.9 billion NASA budget outline released Monday would continue development of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule and begin the deployment of a mini-space station around the moon as soon as 2022, but the proposal would cancel WFIRST, a flagship-class astronomy mission planned for launch in the mid-2020s.

Making its first flight, a privately-funded air-launched rocket developed and built by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit failed to reach space Monday after release from the company’s modified 747 carrier airplane over the Pacific Ocean.