Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard booster launched Wednesday on an uncrewed test flight, sending a capsule on a brief jaunt into space over West Texas to demonstrate a key safety feature for space tourists and scientists riding on the company’s future rockets.

Rocket Lab’s next launch from New Zealand, set for Friday, will carry a data recorder to measure the aerothermal environments encountered by the Electron launcher’s first stage during descent back into the atmosphere, information engineers say is crucial to successfully achieving the company’s newly-announced plan to recover and reuse the booster.

SpaceX has released photos of Elon Musk’s midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster, the dummy payload selected for the Falcon Heavy rocket’s maiden test flight, being readied for launch at Cape Canaveral.