Photos: Launch boosts satellite for U.S. allies

Launching its 10th mission this year, SpaceX delivered an Intelsat communications satellite to a high-altitude transfer orbit Wednesday with a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A powerful European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana late Friday and boosted a pair of satellites into space for a seven-year plunge into the inner solar system, a voyage requiring seven planetary flybys to slow down enough in the sun’s gravitational clutches to slip into orbit around hellish Mercury.

More photos show the successful liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight carrying the Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft for Orbital ATK and the International Space Station.