Live coverage: Space station crew safely returns to Earth

A mission to investigate the atmospheres of planets around other stars has been selected by the European Space Agency for launch in the late 2020s, officials announced this week.

Crowned with a European-built communications satellite designed to broadcast television over the Americas, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster lifted off Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A Wednesday at 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT).

Three days after high winds scrubbed a launch attempt Friday, Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket with four satellites from New Zealand at 1212 GMT (8:12 a.m. EDT) Monday.