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

Orbital ATK’s proposed rocket to answer the U.S. Air Force’s desire for two families of satellite launchers with U.S.-made propulsion systems will be named OmegA, and the company has selected the cryogenic Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine to power the vehicle’s upper stage, officials announced this week.

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

A sharp-eyed Chinese Earth-imaging satellite rode a Long March 4B booster into orbit Tuesday, tying the record for the highest number of space launches China has achieved in a single year.