Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk briefed reporters on the status of the Falcon Heavy test flight, and several of the company’s other projects, shortly after the huge rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

U.S. Air Force officials signed off Monday on a plan for SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, rivals in the launch services market, to fire off Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 rockets from neighboring launch pads at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening and Thursday morning.

Boeing’s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where teams raised the craft atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff next month on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.