Photos: Final ULA mission of the year blasts off successfully

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad as an Atlas 5 rocket counts down to liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) Thursday with the GOES-S weather satellite.

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.

Taking aim on the International Space Station, nine kerosene-burning rocket engines powered a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher into a clear sky over Florida’s Space Coast on Friday night to begin the final flight of the first version of the company’s Dragon cargo ship.