Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

A commercial supply ship owned and operated by Orbital ATK departed the International Space Station on Friday, heading for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean with more than 1.5 tons of trash. The station’s robotic arm released Cygnus at 1226 GMT (7:26 a.m. EST).

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Thursday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Inmarsat 5 F4 communications satellite into orbit 32 minutes later.

After waiting for a Soyuz crew ferry craft to launch and dock, a commercial Cygnus supply ship arrived at the International Space Station with a fresh delivery of more than 5,100 pounds of provisions and experiments Sunday. The rendezvous culminated in the spaceship’s grapple by the space station’s robotic arm at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT).