Live coverage: Space station robot arm captures Dragon supply ship

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched into a starry moonlit sky Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, making a speedy trek across the Atlantic Ocean to place a commercial television broadcast satellite into orbit for EchoStar.

SpaceX moved closer to its next launch with a successful hold-down engine firing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sailing through a readiness check for a planned liftoff Wednesday with a clandestine U.S. government payload named Zuma.

The U.S. Air Force has identified the launch of a next-generation GPS navigation satellite for the first in a series of competitive rocket procurements between United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, service officials announced Wednesday.