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.

SpaceX is also gearing up for NASA’s upcoming Crew-11 mission launch, which will carry astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and OlegPlatonov to the International Space Station for a science mission. The liftoff for this mission is targeted for 9:39 PM IST on July 31.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, Calif., It put 24 satellites into near Earth orbit in polar areas.

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.

The NASA TRACERS mission is set to launch on Wednesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after SpaceX postponed Tuesday's launch due to "airspace concerns."

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch from Vandenberg in California on a NASA mission. Where are some spots to watch liftoff? Will there be a sonic boom?