Photos: Atlas 5 lifts off with Solar Orbiter

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket powered off launch pad 39A at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT) Tuesday on its inaugural test flight, and we captured the launcher’s spectacular liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site around 3 miles from the pad.

The announcement Monday of the discovery of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus — an indicator of possible life — has raised hopes among scientists for new robotic missions to renew exploration of Earth’s planetary neighbor. If Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck gets his way, a privately-funded mission could get the next crack at probing Venus’s soupy atmosphere.

House lawmakers this week proposed to fund NASA’s human-rated lunar lander development program at less than one-fifth of the level the Trump administration wanted, but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday the House budget bill is just the “opening salvo” in an appropriations process that now goes to the Senate.