Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship returns to Earth

Orbital ATK’s upgraded Antares rocket, featuring newly-built RD-181 main engines, completed a 30-second test firing on a launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Tuesday.

Japan’s Astro-H mission, an X-ray astronomy observatory designed to shed light on black holes and the unseen structure of the universe, lifted off aboard an H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 0845 GMT (3:45 a.m. EST) Wednesday.

SpaceX launched more than 2,500 of its satellites so far this year. It executed liftoff of its Falcon 9 rocket from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday at 1:41 p.m. PDT (4:41 p.m. EDT / 2041 UTC).