Live coverage: SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites

NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon.

The Starlink 10-25 mission will also set a new reuse milestone for the first stage booster, which is flying for a record-setting 29th time. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 UTC).

Watch as a 23-story Falcon 9 rocket explodes Thursday morning during a countdown before a pre-launch engine hotfire test at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.