Photos: First ULA mission of the year blasts off

A payload critical to the nation was mounted atop its Atlas 5 rocket this morning in preparation for next week’s launch into orbit.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Friday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 4,800 pounds of supplies and experiments.

Sixty more SpaceX-owned Starlink internet satellites rocketed through a moonlit winter sky over Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher early Thursday, while another Falcon 9 sat on a different launch pad a few miles away to loft another 60 Starlink payloads Friday.