Boeing officials said Wednesday that the company is targeting Dec. 17 for the launch of the first unpiloted orbital test flight of the new Starliner crew capsule from Cape Canaveral on a week-long demonstration mission to the International Space Station, a precursor to a mission with astronauts next year.

A satellite to provide residential Internet services across the U.S. was hoisted aboard its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster on Saturday, Dec. 10 in preparation for liftoff on Sunday, Dec. 18.

Speeding toward Jupiter at nearly 40 miles per second, NASA’s Juno spacecraft must brave a field of computer-zapping radiation and Jupiter’s tenuous ring of ice and dust particles when it brakes into orbit around the giant planet Monday.