Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral hoisted a Centaur upper stage on top of an Atlas 5 rocket Friday at launch pad 41, completing the initial build-up of the launch vehicle slated to carry Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into space in December on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday carrying the U.S. Air Force’s first GPS 3-series navigation satellite destined for an orbit more than 12,000 miles above Earth.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher rocketed into orbit Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, climbing away from a hillside launch complex just after sunrise with 10 Iridium communications satellites.