Photos: Delta 4 launches on secret NROL-45 mission

Riding nearly a million pounds of thrust, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner rocketed into orbit April 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome en route to the International Space Station.

Setting new commercial launch and satellite industry records, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled by a first stage booster launched and recovered two times before soared into a clear morning sky over California’s Central Coast on Monday with 64 small satellites, then returned to a pinpoint landing on a vessel parked offshore in the Pacific Ocean, potentially to be flown again.

The last flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Medium rocket lifted off Aug. 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, riding more than 1.2 million pounds of thrust from a hydrogen-fueled main engine and two strap-on solid rocket motors.