Artwork: ULA Vulcan rocket revealed

The satellite awaiting launch early Saturday from California aboard the final flight of the venerable Delta 2 rocket should allow scientists to more precisely track changes in our planet’s ice sheets, using six green laser beams to chart the height and slope of polar ice and glaciers, providing a key input into climate change research.

Watch the first SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch since a catastrophic launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 first stage was successfully recovered after landing on a floating platform in the Pacific.

United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket was filled with methane and liquid oxygen propellants at Cape Canaveral last week for a tanking test, but managers decided to move the rocket back inside a hangar for a few adjustments before proceeding with an engine test-firing.