Late-night rocket launch window! Weather permitting and depending on cloud cover, SpaceX Falcon 9 could be visible in the Volusia County sky this week

The launch takes place on a milestone date, marking 20 years since the STS-114 space shuttle mission took off from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39B. The launch of Discovery on the STS-114 mission on July 26, 2005, marked the return to flight for the space shuttle after the Columbia tragedy investigation.

An international crew is readying for Thursday's planned launch of a NASA mission to the International Space Station after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center.

One of these ride-along NASA efforts is the Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, which will demonstrate a new way of more efficiently placing remote-sensing (or rather, Earth-observing) instruments into orbit.

About 3,870 employees have applied to depart NASA over two rounds through the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, the agency disclosed.

SpaceX launched 28 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Pad 40 in Florida at 5:01 a.m. EDT Saturday.