A Boeing-built communications satellite lifted off at 7:21 p.m. EDT (2321 GMT) Monday on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will add to Inmarsat’s Global Xpress network linking airplanes, ships and other mobile terminals with broadband Internet and data services.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a touch and go landing on asteroid Bennu at 6:12 p.m. EDT (2212 GMT) Tuesday. The craft aimed to collect samples from the asteroid’s gravely surface for return to Earth in 2023 for scientists to search for clues about the origins and evolution of the solar system.

Humankind’s largest emissary to Mars in a generation is set for blastoff Monday, when Europe and Russia will dispatch a mission to unravel the mystery of Martian methane.