Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

Boeing engineers are close to resolving concerns with the mass and aerodynamic shape of the company’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew carrier, and officials are optimistic the spaceship will be ready to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station in early 2018.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:09 p.m. PDT (4:09 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on a mission hauling 51 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

The Russian Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft departed the International Space Station and landed in Kazakhstan Thursday, bringing home outgoing space station commander Luca Parmitano, Soyuz pilot Alexander Skvortsov, and NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who concluded a 328-day mission, the longest-ever spaceflight by a woman. The Soyuz undocked from the station at 0550 GMT (12:50 a.m. EST) Thursday, then landed on the Kazakh steppe at 0912 GMT (4:12 a.m. EST).