Live coverage: Proton rocket launches with two U.S.-built satellites

Live coverage from NASA Television for the launch of a Russian Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 0709 GMT (3:09 a.m. EDT).

A rocket engine that could power United Launch Alliance’s next-generation rocket has passed a major design review, clearing the way for full-scale hotfire testing starting next year and certification for test flights in 2019, according to Aerojet Rocketdyne, the powerplant’s developer.

Four magnetic explosion probes in a towering stack atop an Atlas 5 rocket rode a fountain of flame off the launch pad and into Earth orbit Thursday night for a $1.1 billion NASA science investigation into a universal force of nature.