NASA's Pandora satellite mission to document at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars will start from SpaceX at its Starbase launch facility in Cameron County, Texas.

Pandora will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as so many other satellites have. A small NASA exoplanet probe now has a ride to Earth orbit. The agency announced on Monday afternoon (Feb. 10) that it has picked SpaceX to launch Pandora,

Elon Musk's SpaceX was approved for a $7.5 million grant by the Texas Space Commission Monday along with four other applicants for a total of $47.7 million in grants. The other recipients included Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace and two Houston companies: Intuitive Machines and Starlab Space.

SpaceX, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Starlab Space each got at least $7M from the state's Space Commission.