Live coverage: International Space Station crew lands in Kazakhstan

An International Launch Services Proton rocket lifted off at 2137 GMT (4:37 p.m. EST) on Dec. 27 with the Astra 2G communications satellite, a new broadcasting platform owned by SES to beam television and broadband services to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Blue Origin launched its New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of space Tuesday from the company’s remote desert test site in West Texas on an experimental flight to test precision lunar landing technology for NASA.

A commercial lunar lander built by Astrobotic will launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2023 to deliver a water-hunting NASA rover to the moon’s south pole, officials announced Tuesday.