Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with three satellites

On its first launch of the year, a Russian-made Proton rocket lifted off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a French-built, Russian-owned communications satellite.

Two communications satellites launched from Cape Canaveral in March aboard Falcon 9 rockets, including a broadcasting craft that lifted off on SpaceX’s first re-flown booster, have entered commercial service, according to their owners.

SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship wrapped up a 29-day stay at the International Space Station on Tuesday, departing the complex with nearly 3,700 pounds of research specimens, a balky spacesuit and experimental 3D printed parts before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.