Photos: More shots of Delta 4 liftoff

Aiming to reduce risk and costs, NASA has decided to launch the first two modules of the Gateway station in lunar orbit on the same heavy-lift rocket in 2023, rather than fly them on separate rockets and dock them together in deep space, according to the the agency’s chief human spaceflight manager.

In this time-lapse video, a Falcon Heavy rocket is lifted into position atop launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in readiness for a pre-flight test firing of its 27 Merlin main engines.

A Chinese Long March 3B launcher carried a Beidou satellite into orbit Monday, adding the penultimate satellite to China’s independent navigation fleet before another mission in May completes the constellation to give it a global reach.