Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with fifth set of Iridium Next satellites

Loaded with supplies to keep the International Space Station’s crew fed, clothed and busy with new science projects, a Cygnus cargo vessel sped into orbit today atop an Atlas 5 rocket.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket climbed into space Sunday with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on a daring mission to explore the atmosphere of the sun. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral occurred at 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT).

If SpaceX is able to dispatch a robotic Dragon capsule to land on the red planet in 2018 on time and successfully, engineers stand to get a lesson on what it will take to eventually send humans there, capturing key data on an untested Mars landing scheme a decade sooner than NASA could do it, space agency officials said this week.