Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship captured by space station robot arm

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin engines at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A Thursday in a customary pre-flight test ahead of the company’s next mission, slated for Monday with a commercial South Korean-owned communications satellite.

Rocket Lab’s third flight of the year delivered seven small commercial, military and educational satellites into orbit Saturday after a launch from New Zealand, while construction of a new launch pad in Virginia continues on pace for completion by the end of the year.

Launching with two communications satellites to broadcast television to Brazilian homes and connect the islands of Indonesia, an Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from a space base at the northern edge of the Amazon jungle Tuesday, the first of seven planned flights by the European-built booster this year.