Photos: Delta 4 lights up the sky for night owl launch

The Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral for its pre-dawn ascent to deploy the NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast on its third try, United Launch Alliance’s Delta 2 rocket lifted off Saturday with NOAA’s JPSS 1 polar-orbiting weather satellite.

Rocket Lab’s first operational launch took off from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand at 10:50 p.m. EST Saturday (0350 GMT Sunday). The Electron rocket is carrying six CubeSats and a tech demo payload into orbit for customers in the United States, Australia, and Germany.