Space Station Live: October 7, 2015

Top officials from NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, could decide soon to commit to keeping the International Space Station staffed and flying through at least 2028, four years after the research lab’s current retirement date.

Wrapping up SpaceX’s fourth operational resupply flight to the International Space Station, a Dragon cargo capsule departed the high-flying research complex, dropped out of orbit and descended to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with nearly 3,300 pounds of biological specimens and hardware.

A spherical U.S. Navy spacecraft the size of a beach ball spring-ejected from a new satellite deployer outside the International Space Station last week, debuting a fresh way for low-budget space missions to reach orbit.