Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

A heavy-duty crane towering over launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in recent weeks has removed several large sections of a disused structure once needed to install satellites and space station modules into space shuttle cargo bays.

An unpiloted space plane developed by Sierra Nevada Corp. will join cargo carriers built by SpaceX and Orbital ATK to resupply the International Space Station beginning in 2019, NASA announced Thursday.

The first upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, known as the ‘Block 5’, takes flight from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 11 May 2018.