Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship departs space station

Cape Canaveral will get its first Minotaur rocket launch in 2017, when the solid-fueled booster will send up a U.S. Air Force space surveillance satellite under a contract with Orbital ATK.

Arianespace has received its first two confirmed launch contracts for Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket, and the company recently announced four more launch bookings to loft communications and weather satellites into orbit aboard Ariane 5 and Soyuz boosters from French Guiana.

Blaming a technical glitch encountered during a preflight test, officials said Thursday the launch of SpaceX’s next Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station has been delayed to early January.