Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

Four weeks, three launches, two coasts. October was an unprecedented month for United Launch Alliance and its venerable workhorse rocket.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Cape Canaveral with the U.S. Space Force’s newest third-generation Global Positioning System navigation satellite, helping clear the way for the launch of SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon astronaut mission later this month.

A SpaceX-owned supply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday with 2.4 tons of cargo, including space debris and solar energy monitors mounted in the Dragon spacecraft’s external payload bay and more than 3,400 pounds of gear inside its reused pressurized module.