Live coverage: Falcon 9 launches ocean study satellite, barge landing fails

A pair of Air Force surveillance satellites headed to geosynchronous orbit today to reconnoiter the high ground, departing Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket at 12:52 a.m. EDT (0452 GMT). It is the 375th Delta rocket flight since 1960.

Returning home after a 64-day test flight, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday, a final major step before NASA formally certifies the crew capsule for operational missions to the International Space Station.

China launched an optical stereo mapping satellite Sunday, using an upgraded version of the country’s Long March 3B rocket with an extended payload shroud to deliver the Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit 300 miles above Earth.