Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

For the first time in nearly four years, a rocket successfully shot into orbit from Israel on Monday with a military reconnaissance satellite to shore up the country’s space-based capability to surveil Iran and other adversaries.

NASA is announcing the astronauts who will fly the first crewed test flights of the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing Starliner capsules next year. The event at the Johnson Space Center is due to get underway at 11am EDT (1500 GMT).

Launching the Wideband Global SATCOM 8 satellite for the U.S. military, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket thundered away from Cape Canaveral at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT).