Photos: Atlas 5 powers NRO payload into the night

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Space Coast Wednesday evening with the SES 11/EchoStar 105 communications satellite, a video relay and data distribution platform jointly developed by SES and EchoStar.

A government communications satellite to link Indian citizens with telemedicine, education, and other services rocketed into orbit Thursday on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

Two Chinese Yaogan military reconnaissance satellites launched this week, riding a Long March 2C booster into orbit on a mission that inaugurated the use of a new restartable upper stage to increase the rocket’s carrying capacity.