Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad for X-37B launch

Relive the launches and landings of the Air Force’s X-37B miniature space shuttle on Orbital Test Vehicle missions No.1, No. 2 and No. 3.

The first piloted test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule has been delayed to early 2018 as designers wrestle with the mass of the spacecraft, aerodynamic loads the vehicle will see during launch, and new software requirements levied by NASA, company officials said.

The term “direct flight” will go to new heights Friday with a four-hour flight by a Soyuz rocket and its Fregat upper stage to deliver five satellites to three distinct orbital destinations hundreds of miles above Earth.