SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Friday evening, igniting nine Merlin engines for several seconds while hold-down restraints kept the launcher on the ground. The company also confirmed the rocket is scheduled for takeoff Wednesday on a space station resupply mission, three days later than previously planned.

Hurricane Harveypathmap

The storm made landfall Friday night near Rockport, Texas, as a strong Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but its slow-moving meandering course has caused catastrophic flooding across parts of Texas, including Houston, home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Harvey's near me

The first video below shows a view of Hurricane Harvey from the International Space Station on Friday, just hours before the storm reached the Texas coast. The second video is an animated satellite view from NOAA’s new GOES-16 weather observatory, a new-generation sentinel launched last November with an upgraded camera that produces clearer, more rapid imagery than previous weather satellites.

Loaded with investigations into chemotherapy drugs with reduced side effects and radiation detectors for homeland security, a plant-growing chamber to promote future food harvesting in space and a technology demonstration for sample-return capsules, a commercial Cygnus cargo vessel will be sent to the International Space Station next week.

Harvey's locations

Videos and photos from satellites and the crew aboard the International Space Station showed Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the Texas coast this weekend.

Harvey's coupons

Harvey's menu

On its third flight Monday night, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will fly to three different orbits with two dozen spacecraft on a mission set to last more than six hours, prompting SpaceX founder Elon Musk to declare it the company’s “most difficult launch ever.”

Members of the International Space Station’s control team are sheltering in place at the space center, and NASA said the James Webb Space Telescope is secured inside its test chamber, where engineers are preparing it for a launch next year.