Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

NASA has signed a $187 million contract with Northrop Grumman to complete the preliminary design of a pressurized crew habitat for the planned Gateway mini-space station near the moon, and agency officials have discussed new details about plans to launch first two Gateway modules on a single heavy-lift rocket.

A SpaceX Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Saturday carrying a new docking mechanism, a spacesuit for future spacewalks, and a 3D bioprinter to test the feasibility of manufacturing human tissue in microgravity.

Four magnetic explosion probes in a towering stack atop an Atlas 5 rocket rode a fountain of flame off the launch pad and into Earth orbit Thursday night for a $1.1 billion NASA science investigation into a universal force of nature.