Photos: Sun sets on Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral

Launch of the Starlink 11-9 mission carrying 27 satellites for SpaceX’s internet service slipped a day from Sunday to Monday. Liftoff from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 1:42 p.m. PDT (4:42 p.m. EDT, 2042 UTC).

Holding up a photo taken by China’s new Mars lander, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson warned Congress Wednesday that his agency faces increasingly stiff competition on the high frontier and that sustained funding for a new moon lander, infrastructure upgrades and other critical programs is vital for America’s space program.

Two weeks after a sensor problem forced a delay, an Ariane 5 rocket blasted off at 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT) Saturday from French Guiana with two commercial communications satellites to cover the United States and Japan, and a Northrop Grumman-built robotic satellite servicing mission designed to link up with another spacecraft in geostationary orbit.