Live coverage: Falcon 9 disintegrates after launch

A full-size prototype of SpaceX’s heavy-lift Starship launch vehicle soared high into the atmosphere Wednesday in a spectacular test flight over South Texas, and successfully guided itself to a beachside landing site before exploding at touchdown. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, hailed the nearly seven-minute test flight as a success.

The first spacecraft in a new generation of Russian Progress cargo vehicles parked at the International Space Station on Wednesday, bringing a holiday delivery of more than 5,000 pounds of fuel, water and supplies for the research lab’s six-person crew.

A U.S.-built, Bulgarian-owned broadcast satellite will launch in mid-June from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a previously-used SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that first flew in January, officials said Friday.