Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

A push to give NASA’s Space Launch System a new name is garnering support from lawmakers, who have written into legislation provisions that would order NASA to rename the heavy-lift rocket through a competition among schoolchildren.

Pioneering spacecraft from NASA and the Japanese space agency promise to reveal two unexplored asteroids later this year, officials said Wednesday, beginning surveys that will culminate in daring descents to capture samples for return to Earth, where eager scientists await a hands-on look at the specimens.

The Starlink 17-20 mission was the seventh Starlink mission this year. Liftoff from pad 4E happened at 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. EST / 1730 UTC).