Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Rocket Lab’s second Electron booster lifted off from New Zealand’s North Island on Saturday, U.S. time, and reached orbit after an eight-minute climb over the Pacific Ocean. Liftoff with three commercial CubeSats occurred at 8:43 p.m. EST Saturday (0143 GMT; 2:43 p.m. New Zealand time Sunday).

United Launch Alliance has begun stacking its first Atlas 5 rocket to fly in service to the International Space Station, a commercial mission to send supplies to the orbiting complex.

Cameras in various locations at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center capture the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s TESS planet-hunting telescope.