Photos: Atlas 5 powers away with NROL-61 payload

United Launch Alliance fired an Atlas 5 rocket into space from Cape Canaveral at 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 GMT) Sunday with the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane, an automated reusable mini-space shuttle designed to host experiments for years in orbit, then return to Earth and land on a runway. A launch attempt Saturday was scrubbed by bad weather.

An Indian satellite built as a technological testbed for mobile communications successfully launched Thursday on top of a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, one of 10 space missions planned by India by the end of the year.

Thirteen U.S.-built nanosatellites hitched a ride to space Tuesday with a sharp-eyed Indian Earth-imaging observatory at the top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.