Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

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.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites at sunrise Monday, capping a busy long-weekend for the launch company that saw three launches and two scrubbed countdowns over four days.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in less than 10 minutes Friday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 5,900 pounds of supplies and experiments.