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

When the first Delta 2 rocket took off on Valentine’s Day 1989, ideas like navigating by smartphone and driving robots on Mars were science fiction. More than 150 launches over the last 30 years helped change all that.

A startup company named i-Space became the first Chinese private firm to achieve orbit Thursday with a successful launch of a light-class Hyperbola 1 booster.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Medium+ (4,2) rocket lifted off at 12:52 a.m. EDT (0452 GMT) from Cape Canaveral for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.