Photos: Atlas 5 launches EchoStar 19 broadband satellite

Boeing’s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where teams raised the craft atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff next month on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

China chalked up another launch Thursday with the on-target delivery of a Beidou navigation satellite destined for an operating post in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket loaded with 10 Iridium Next communications satellite is awaiting a predawn launch Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.