India’s all-new GSLV Mk. 3 launcher blasted off for the first time at 0400 GMT Thursday (11 p.m. EST Wednesday) on a suborbital test flight to demonstrate a new twin-engine core stage, two powerful solid rocket boosters and a prototype capsule designed for India’s planned human space program.

Rocket Lab’s next launch from New Zealand, set for Friday, will carry a data recorder to measure the aerothermal environments encountered by the Electron launcher’s first stage during descent back into the atmosphere, information engineers say is crucial to successfully achieving the company’s newly-announced plan to recover and reuse the booster.

SpaceX is still working on a new, safer helium tank design needed for launches with astronauts, and the debut of the company’s upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket earlier this month did not count as one of seven successful missions in “crew configuration” NASA says it requires before putting astronauts aboard the vehicle, officials said Thursday.