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

It’s one thing to watch a spouse blast off on a rocketship, especially when the spacecraft is making its first flight with people on board. But it’s altogether another matter when the anxious spouse is an astronaut as well.

A solid-fueled Minotaur 4 rocket lifted off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. military payload designed to monitor satellite traffic in geosynchronous orbit.

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off at 2234 GMT (6:34 p.m. EDT) Wednesday with the country’s ninth navigation satellite, bolstering a regional positioning and timing network after the loss of a navigation craft on a previous PSLV mission last year.