Live coverage: SpaceX cargo capsule returns to Earth

SpaceX defied public safety rules on its most recent Starship launch over South Texas in December, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday as it approved a license for SpaceX’s next high-altitude Starship test flight scheduled for the same day.

Five days after work to replace the grapple fitting on one end of the space station’s robot arm, commander Randy Bresnik and flight engineer Mark Vande Hei ventured back outside the lab complex Tuesday to lubricate the new arm mechanism, to replace a degraded camera and to carry out a variety of lower-priority chores.

NASA has formally certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch all but the space agency’s most costly robotic science missions, beginning with a a U.S.-French oceanography satellite set for liftoff from California in July.