Photos: Predawn launch of Atlas 5

Russia launched a military communications satellite Wednesday, sending a data relay and broadcasting station to an orbit more than 22,000 miles above the equator aboard a Proton rocket and a Breeze M upper stage.

The 50th Atlas 5 rocket lifts off From Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS satellite.

Two U.S.-built Intelsat communications satellites have hitched on to an Ariane 5 rocket for launch from French Guiana next week, the first time the storied company has put two of its spacecraft on the same booster.