The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slated to launch two NASA astronauts into orbit May 27 test-fired its nine Merlin booster engines Friday, May 22, on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Carrying a Cygnus supply ship bound for the International Space Station, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket lifted off Monday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia.

A Proton rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite Thursday, the heaviest commercial payload ever flown aboard a Russian booster.