Live coverage: New Horizons flyby target comes into focus

Wrapping up a busy two days on the lunar surface, a Chinese spacecraft carrying moon soil took off from a makeshift launch pad and fired back into orbit Thursday on the first leg of its journey back to Earth.

A previously-flown Falcon 9 booster blasted off Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast with 10 new-generation communications satellites for Iridium. Launch occurred 8:27 p.m. EST (5:27 p.m. PST; 0127 GMT).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Tuesday at 12:33 a.m. EST (0533 GMT) with Hispasat 30W-6, a communications satellite to relay video and broadband signals between the Americas, Europe and North Africa.