Live coverage: 400th Proton rocket takes off with Russian satellite

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B mini-shuttle, an unpiloted orbiting military laboratory. Liftoff occurred at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), and the Falcon 9’s first stage booster successfully landed at Cape Canaveral a few minutes later.

Working around the clock to meet a 12-day launch window in March, European engineers are putting the final touches on a Mars orbiter that could shed light on whether tiny microbes or geologic activity still linger on the barren planet.

The launch of the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM military communications satellite aboard a Delta 4 rocket booster occurred tonight at 8:07 p.m. EDT (0007 GMT) from Cape Canaveral.