Stats: Delta 4 history and backlog (updated March 30)

Watch an Atlas 5 rocket launch the EchoStar 19 satellite on December 19, 2016. This view was captured by Spaceflight Now’s camera at the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Press Site.

The constellation-building Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance successfully deployed the fifth communications spacecraft for the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System today to form a new rugged smartphone network for the U.S. military.

Blue Origin has conducted the first hotfire test of its BE-4 rocket engine in West Texas, a powerplant fueled by liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen that will power the company’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket and perhaps United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan launcher, officials announced Thursday.