A SpaceX rocket blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station, carrying a load of supplies including a docking adapter that future spaceships will use to park at the orbiting outpost.

"Falcon 9 is on its way," said a commentator at SpaceX mission control as the white rocket launched under a dark night sky from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12:45 am (0445 GMT).

A Russian rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship blasted off for the International Space Station early Sunday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency said.

The final leg of an unprecedented world tour by a solar-powered plane was postponed Saturday due to the pilot's health, he said in a message on Twitter.

Three astronauts blasted off Thursday from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome towards the International Space Station in an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA on Monday counted down to a high-stakes attempt to orbit closer than ever to the planet Jupiter, on a $1.1 billion mission to probe the origin of the solar system.

The unmanned spacecraft, Juno, is expected to arrive late Monday in the vicinity of the largest planet in the solar system, five years after it launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Scientists reported Wednesday that they witnessed in unprecedented detail a star being ripped to shreds and devoured by a dormant supermassive black hole.

The Dutch inventor behind a ground-breaking project to remove millions of tonnes of plastics floating in vast ocean "garbage patches" unveiled Wednesday the first prototype of his ambitious sea-cleaning device.

India successfully launched Wednesday a rocket carrying a record 20 satellites as its famously frugal space agency looks to grab a larger slice of the lucrative commercial space market.

The rocket blasted off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying satellites from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia, the most in a single Indian mission.

In the middle of southern Israel's desert, engineers are hard at work building the world's tallest solar tower, reflecting Israel's high hopes for renewable energy.

The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft set off from New York's JFK airport early Monday, embarking on the transatlantic leg of its record-breaking flight around the world to promote renewable energy.

The flight, piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, is expected to take about 90 hours -- during which Piccard will only take short naps -- before landing at Spain's Seville airport.