Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

This is the third and final launch that Amazon booked onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for no earlier than Oct. 12 at 8:29 p.m. EDT (0029 UTC).

The International Space Station received two cargo shipments this week from the U.S. and Russia. A SpaceX Dragon capsule berthed with the orbiting outpost on Thursday, February 23 and a Russian Progress cargo freighter docked a day later. Watch video highlights of the arrivals.

NASA announced Thursday nine companies that will be eligible to compete for up to $2.6 billion in contracts over the next decade to ferry scientific instruments and tech demo payloads to the moon aboard commercial robotic landers, a first step in what agency officials said will foster expanded private investment in deep space exploration and an eventual return of humans to the lunar surface.