Workers removed the protective wrap that has cocooned space shuttle Atlantis while its $100 million new home was built around it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Tim Macy, director of project development for the visitor complex describes the work and looks ahead to the opening of the new exhibit this June.
Falcon 9
Live coverage: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, then lands at Cape Canaveral
SpaceX launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on Monday after a first stage sensor problem halted a countdown Sunday. Liftoff from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT), and the first stage landed at nearby Cape Canaveral around nine minutes later. The upper stage’s flight entered a pre-planned news blackout a few minutes after launch.
Falcon 9
Launch companies, range teams reassessing Cape Canaveral weather rules
Launch companies and U.S. Space Force range officials at Cape Canaveral are reassessing long-standing weather rules, looking at beefing up rocket defenses against lightning, and considering strategies to prepare for two different launch windows on a given day to guard against weather delays, something SpaceX may demonstrate with a Falcon 9 launch early Thursday.