Photos: Atlas 5 launches SBIRS GEO Flight 3

The U.S. Space Force announced Tuesday that it awarded $384 million in contracts to United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, giving each company two missions to launch military satellites in 2023.

A Proton rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite Thursday, the heaviest commercial payload ever flown aboard a Russian booster.

An Atlas 5 lifts off at dawn creating a spectacular sky show as it races toward orbit carrying the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF 5) communications satellite for the U.S. Air Force.