Video: Soyuz MS-01 leaves the space station for landing

A Soyuz rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Thursday, launching four satellites owned by O3b Networks nearly 5,000 miles above Earth to expand access to high-speed Internet in the developing world.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting human-rating upgrades such as new composite pressurant tanks briefly ignited its nine Merlin engines Thursday afternoon on a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and SpaceX later declared the pre-launch milestone complete in preparation for a critical test flight with a commercial crew capsule as soon as late February.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was poised for launch Wednesday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad carrying more than 5,600 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.