As it happened: NASA leadership announces delays to first Artemis crewed launch, Moon landing missions

Carrying a $2.7 billion NASA mission to Mars, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off July 30 from Cape Canaveral and fired into a summer sky powered by four powerful solid rocket boosters and a kerosene-burning main engine.

A day-and-a-half after launching from Virginia aboard an Antares rocket, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship loaded with nearly 7,600 pounds of experiments and provisions arrived at the International Space Station on Friday. Astronaut Anne McClain captured the Cygnus spacecraft with the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm at 5:28 a.m. EDT (0928 GMT).

The infrared space telescope and Sun-centric missions will launch on a rideshare Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, March 10. Liftoff happened Tuesday, March 11, at 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC).