Video: Falcon 9 fires up engines on pad 39A (members only)

Now in an elliptical orbit around the sun, the Tesla Roadster launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday during the powerful booster’s maiden flight was expected to pass beyond the moon’s orbit overnight Wednesday and reach the orbit of Mars in July as it puts Earth in its rear view mirror, analysts said.

The Starlink 6-63 mission falls on the fifth anniversary of Starlink v0.9, the first dedicated Starlink mission, on May 23, 2019. Liftoff Thursday is set for 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 UTC).

A senior NASA official raised concerns Wednesday that “difficulties” with SpaceX’s development of the huge new Starship rocket could delay the Artemis program’s first moon landing with astronauts from late 2025, a mission that will use a derivative of the Starship vehicle to ferry a two-person crew to and from the lunar surface.