Photos: Spectacular sunset launch of asteroid mission

Rocket Lab launched a radar imaging satellite Tuesday for the Japanese company Synspective. The small Earth observation payload lifted off from New Zealand at 5:09 a.m. EST (1009 GMT) aboard an Electron rocket. Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage on this mission.

A Soyuz rocket launched Friday with four commercial satellites to expand broadband Internet coverage in remote parts of the world, climbing into orbit from the Guiana Space Center positioned on the northeastern shore of South America.

Assuming a May 1 launch, the Starliner spacecraft would dock with the ISS on May 2. The spacecraft will launch on the 100th flight of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket.