Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit Monday from Cape Canaveral with nearly three tons of hardware and supplies for the International Space Station.

Maintaining a brisk flight rate three days after its last launch, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 booster powered by a reused first stage into orbit Wednesday evening from Florida with an Airbus-built communications satellite for SES and EchoStar.

Two Chinese Beidou navigation satellites successfully launched Monday on top of a Long March 3B rocket, completing the core of China’s independent positioning and timing network ahead of the start of global service next year.