SpaceX conducts engine test fire for communications satellite launch (members only)

Eric Boe, one of three astronauts assigned to the first piloted test flight of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner commercial crew ship later this year has been removed from the mission due to unspecified medical issues, NASA announced Tuesday. He will be replaced by veteran astronaut Mike Fincke.

A Russian satellite launched Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, riding a Proton booster and Block DM upper stage toward a position in geostationary orbit to provide weather observations over Siberia, other parts of Russia’s Far East, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The mission marked the first time that an American-made rocket launched Europe’s answer to the GPS satellite constellation. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A happened at 8:34 p.m. EDT (0034 UTC) on Saturday, April 27.