When two veteran NASA astronauts blasted off on a test drive of Boeing's new capsule, they expected to head home from the International Space Station in a week or so.

It's now three weeks and counting for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as NASA and Boeing troubleshoot equipment problems that popped up on the way there.

Three potential landing dates were called off and their flight home is now on hold.

This week, Boeing said the Starliner capsule's problems aren't a concern for the return trip and "the astronauts are not stranded.

The last of a series of hurricane-hunting satellites got its most powerful ride ever to space June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

The rocket that is essentially three Falcon 9's strapped together blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A at 5:26 p.m. Eastern time carrying the 11,000-pound GOES-U satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, partnered with NASA.

Weather worries proved unfounded for the launch site as teams threaded the needle of afternoon thunderstorms to take flight amid blue skies to the cheers of gathered crowds.

About eight minutes after liftoff—with a kettle of vultures taking flight to get out of the way—two of the three boosters for Falcon Heavy made a recovery touchdown back at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Landing Zones 1 and 2. Their supersonic return knocked out a pair of double sonic booms that set off car alarms and struck a unique whistling reverb sound off the massive Vehicle Assembly Building.

The center core booster will crash into the Atlantic with no recovery planned.

Expending the center core is needed to send GOES-U to a transfer orbit that will take it to an ultimate destination 22,000 miles away from Earth.