Live coverage: Two Americans, one Russian back on Earth from space station

A miniature cargo return vehicle carried aboard a Japanese supply ship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean earlier this month in the first test of a new capsule to bring home experiment samples from the International Space Station.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has booked at least six launches on United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket to carry Dream Chaser supply ships into orbit on cargo runs to the International Space Station beginning in 2021, becoming the first confirmed customer for ULA’s next-generation launcher.

SpaceX conducted the first hold-down firing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for launch next week with Bangladesh’s first communications satellite.