Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad at sundown

NASA announced Friday a mix of spaceflight veterans and rookie astronauts who will launch on the first flights of new Boeing and SpaceX commercial spaceships starting as soon as next spring, several months later than previously scheduled.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket is awaiting liftoff with a classified U.S. government spy satellite at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s historic Space Launch Complex-6, a picturesque rocket facility that was once intended to support launches of military astronauts and space shuttles.

Just three weeks after the Delta 4-Heavy rocket left the launch pad on its way to a successful satellite-deployment mission for U.S. national security, a smaller booster in the family has rolled out for its August military flight.