Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Watch a video clip of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage separating and firing its engines to return to Cape Canaveral shortly after liftoff Jan. 7.

A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday.

Boeing officials said Monday the company’s Starliner crew capsule will fly a second time without astronauts after software problems and other issues plagued a first test flight in December, preventing the ship from reaching the International Space Station.