Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket lifted off Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the JPSS 1 weather satellite, the first in a new line of polar-orbiting observatories for NOAA.

A Falcon 9 rocket carried 60 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Thursday after swapping places with another Starlink mission SpaceX’s fast-paced launch schedule. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT).

United Launch Alliance plans to introduce a new payload fairing design on the next-generation Vulcan rocket, which will fly with composite parts made by Switzerland-based Ruag Space, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday.