Live coverage: Ariane 5 launches for DirecTV

A three-man space station crew returned to Earth inside a Russian Soyuz capsule, making a parachute-assisted landing on the remote plains of Kazakhstan after 165 days in orbit.

SES announced Thursday it has tapped SpaceX for two additional Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral to deliver more Boeing-built O3b mPower broadband satellites into orbit, adding to a pair of Falcon 9 flights ordered by SES last year to launch the first batch of mPower platforms beginning in late 2021.

A German-built satellite designed to relay data between other orbiting spacecraft and ground stations using laser beams is set for launch in tandem with an Intelsat communications craft Tuesday from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.