Photos: More Delta 4 launch shots

United Launch Alliance’s 50th mission for the U.S. Air Force lifted off at 12:15 a.m. EDT (0415 GMT) Wednesday. An Atlas 5 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral with the Air Force’s fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite.

China launched its second space mission in less than 24 hours Tuesday, sending a Beidou navigation satellite toward an orbital perch around 22,000 miles above Earth.

Three days after launching from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft has arrived at the International Space Station with around 5,600 pounds of supplies and experiments. The automated, unpiloted supply ship was snared by the station’s robotic arm at 7:21 a.m. EST (1221 GMT) Saturday.