Q&A with Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, built to eventually carry commercial passengers to the edge of space, accomplished another powered test flight into the rarefied upper atmosphere Thursday with two pilots on-board.

A SpaceX cargo capsule loaded with 3,100 pounds of research samples, no-longer-needed equipment and trash returned to Earth Thursday after a month-long stay at the International Space Station, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Long Beach, Calif., after a fiery descent from orbit.

SpaceX launch crews rolled out the company’s next Falcon 9 rocket to pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then lifted the two-stage launcher vertical for a hold-down engine firing Thursday in preparation for launch next week with a South Korean-owned commercial communications satellite.