Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Rocket Lab’s third flight of the year delivered seven small commercial, military and educational satellites into orbit Saturday after a launch from New Zealand, while construction of a new launch pad in Virginia continues on pace for completion by the end of the year.

Five commercial Earth-imaging satellites rode a Long March 11 rocket into orbit Thursday from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China.

A Chinese Long March 3B rocket delivered a new-generation tracking and data relay satellite to orbit Sunday to provide communications support for the country’s future human spaceflight missions and space station.