Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

A collection of liftoff photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the Morelos 3 communications satellite for Mexico.

Two more Beidou navigation satellites launched from China on Sunday, ending a record run of 18 satellite deployments this year for the Chinese alternative to GPS and placing the program on the cusp of expanding to full-time coverage over most of Asia, Africa and Europe.

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday at 7:21 p.m. PDT (10:21 p.m. EDT; 0221 GMT Monday) with SAOCOM 1A, a radar observation satellite for Argentina, then returned the booster to a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for the first time.