Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

SpaceX hasn’t launched a Falcon 9 rocket since the March 2 flight of Starlink 12-20. It’s return to flight mission is set to be the rideshare launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on Monday night.

The Orion spacecraft slated to fly around the moon on an unpiloted mission next year has arrived back at the Kennedy Space Center following an environmental test campaign in Ohio, ready for a series of final checkouts before officials pause launch preparations this summer to await readiness of NASA’s Space Launch System.

In a mission marking the end of an era, NASA astronaut and former virus hunter Kate Rubins, using NASA’s last currently contracted seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, rocketed into orbit Wednesday with two cosmonaut crewmates on a record-setting flight to the International Space Station.