A roundup of this week's top stories you may have missed in aerospace and defense.

"Everything went by the book," noted Rob Navias, a NASA public affairs officer who monitored Friday's Progress 60 launching from the agency's Mission Control Center in Houston. "A flawless ride to orbit."

The same instrument that has been scanning ahead for collision danger to the fast-moving probe is also revealing new details about Pluto’s surface, including a row of mysterious dark spots along the equator.

Russia’s next Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station offers little if any direct relief after more than 5,500 lb. of pressurized and unpressurized cargo bound for the outpost rained down on the Atlantic Ocean in fragments Sunday.

Operations on the International Space Station can continue for now without major upset in the wake of Sunday’s failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon capsule crammed with supplies and equipment, but the program will have to make significant adjustments to accommodate the loss.

With the loss of the SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon resupply mission, the U.S. is temporarily without the means to launch astronauts or cargo to the International Space Station.

Falcon 9 launch failure raises near-term questions about supplies for space station crew and could complicate SpaceX's push to launch national security payloads.

A roundup of this week's top stories in aerospace and defense.