Video: Atlas 5 rocket launches space station cargo mission

NASA ground controllers sent commands to the International Space Station on Thursday for release of a 2.9-ton cargo pallet loaded with old batteries, the most massive object ever jettisoned from the orbiting outpost. The garbage carrier is expected to remain in orbit for two-to-four years before re-entering the atmosphere.

A solid-fueled Long March 11 rocket fired out of a container aboard a barge in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday with seven satellites heading into orbit on China’s first space launch from an ocean vessel.

A Minotaur 4 rocket made up of five solid-fueled rocket motors delivered a U.S. military satellite tracking craft into an equatorial orbit early Saturday after lifting off from Cape Canaveral.