Photos: Tuesday’s Atlas 5 rollout

NASA officials and lawmakers warned Wednesday that U.S. astronauts will continue riding to the International Space Station aboard Russian spacecraft longer than planned if a spending plan under consideration in the Senate becomes law.

A ULA Atlas 5 rocket is set to launch no earlier than 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC) on Friday, Oct. 6. It will sent up two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) today to place NASA’s new tracking station into the sky. The data router will relay video, telemetry and science information from the space station and dozens of research satellites to a central ground terminal. Follow the ascent in our live journal.