Photos: More Launch shots of Delta 375 rocket

When SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket finally takes off for the first time, a debut now scheduled this fall, there’s a good chance the commercial heavy-lifter will falter short of reaching orbit, company founder and chief designer Elon Musk said last week.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off Thursday night at 10:44 p.m. EDT (0244 GMT) with NASA’s four formation-flying MMS satellites.

Keeping up a run of middle-of-the-night launches from Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket powered by a recycled first stage booster climbed into orbit early Tuesday with the Indonesian Merah Putih communications satellite.