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

A Rocket Lab Electron launcher malfunctioned about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff from New Zealand Saturday, destroying two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging satellites in the launch company’s second failed flight in less than a year.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched shortly after midnight Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with Hispasat 30W-6, a communications satellite heading for a position more than 22,000 miles over the equator to serve markets in Europe, North Africa and the Americas.

Two Chinese spacecraft designed to test inter-satellite network and Earth observation technologies launched Wednesday on top of a Long March 2C booster.