Video: Missile alert satellite launches atop Atlas 5

Japan’s 35th H-2A rocket blasted off Saturday from the Tanegashima Space Center, flying into orbit in its most powerful configuration with a geostationary navigation satellite.

Russian ground crews working in starkly different environments on the barren steppes of Kazakhstan and in the lush jungles of South America are readying a pair of Soyuz rockets for two launches Thursday, one to resupply the International Space Station, and another to broaden the capacity of SES’s O3b Internet network.

A rocket booster SpaceX used to launch a planet-hunting NASA observatory two months ago fired again Saturday at Cape Canaveral, clearing a major pre-flight checkout before blastoff June 29 with a space station supply ship.