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

Take a look back at the Feb. 9 launch of a 189-foot-tall (57.6-meter) Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying the European-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

Russian and European teams at the Guiana Space Center in South America plan to detach a UAE spy satellite from its Soyuz launcher to replace the rocket’s Fregat upper stage, forcing a likely delay until April from the mission’s original launch date of Friday.

SpaceX aborted an attempted flight Monday of the company’s Starhopper test rocket, a prototype for the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle. The hop test was to fly to a height of around 500 feet (150 meters) over SpaceX’s launch site at Boca Chica, Texas.