Shuttle Atlantis unwrapped ahead of public debut

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slated to launch two NASA astronauts into orbit May 27 test-fired its nine Merlin booster engines Friday, May 22, on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Liftoff of a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with a European-built television broadcast satellite has been pushed back from Saturday until at least next Wednesday night, officials said.

NASA has added extra safeguards to the agency’s standard pre-launch quarantine protocol to protect astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from the coronavirus and other contagions in the final two weeks before their scheduled May 27 launch on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.