Video: Atlas 5 rocket launches space station cargo mission

A robotic space shuttle with stubby wings, tail fins, its belly covered with black thermal tiles, clam-shell doors that swing open to reveal a payload bay and a solar array for ultralong-duration missions rode into orbit Wednesday on the fourth mission of the Air Force’s reusable X-37B spaceplane project.

Watch a replay of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket taking off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite, as viewed from the press viewing site around three miles away.

Boeing and SpaceX hope to launch commercial crew ferry ships on long-awaited test flights later this year, but both companies face major challenges getting the spacecraft certified before late 2019 when seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft will no longer be easily available for NASA space station crews, officials told lawmakers Wednesday.