Live coverage: International Space Station crew lands in Kazakhstan

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch, using a previously-flown first stage booster, took a step closer to liftoff Thursday with a countdown rehearsal culminating in ignition of the launcher’s nine Merlin main engines in a hold-down firing at pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Eight satellites blasted off Monday on top of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, including an instrument to track tropical cyclones, a pathfinder for a U.S.-owned commercial Earth observation fleet, and multiple spacecraft for Algeria.

A first look at the red planet from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, now in its second month at Mars, gave scientists a sample of the three-dimensional imagery and detailed atmospheric measurements expected over the spacecraft’s five-year mission.