Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

SpaceX raised a 215-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, shortly after the launcher rolled out of the company’s hangar with a Crew Dragon spaceship to ferry four astronauts to the International Space Station.

One of the largest satellites in the world will launch aboard America’s biggest operational booster Thursday, riding that power to a listening post 22,300 miles above the planet for its clandestine eavesdropping mission, all indications suggest.

NASA’s InSight spacecraft plunged into the rarefied atmosphere of Mars at a speed of more than 12,000 mph Monday and braked to a gentle touchdown, setting the stage for a two-year surface mission to probe the planet’s deep interior.