Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

The unpiloted Russian Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on its second try at 11:08 p.m. EDT Monday (0308 GMT Tuesday), three days after aborting an approach due to a problem with the Kurs automated rendezvous system.

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch for the U.S. Air Force took a major step closer to liftoff with a hold-down engine firing Wednesday night at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff with a cluster of experimental satellites and weather monitoring craft is set for June 24.

A high-throughput communications satellite developed as a joint venture between Telesat and APT Satellite lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral, following a delay to wait for storms to clear the Florida spaceport.