Live coverage: SpaceX crew capsule docks with space station

Moving closer toward launch Monday with a South Korean communications satellite, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired its nine Merlin main engines Thursday on a launch pad in Florida in a key preflight readiness test.

A Japanese cargo freighter launched Saturday on a five-day trek to the International Space Station, carrying a set of six replacement batteries, an experimental life support system, and a small new landing craft to bring specimens from the space station back to Earth.

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft dropped an explosive charge on asteroid Ryugu on Thursday night in an audacious attempt to carve a crater on the object, exposing pristine underground rocks to be retrieved by the probe for return to Earth.