Atlas 5 launch as seen from the KSC Press Site (members only)

Europe’s Sentinel 3B environmental satellite was shipped to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region in March for a month-long campaign to prepare the spacecraft for liftoff aboard a Rockot launcher.

SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk win the lion’s share of public attention in the commercial rocket arena, with dramatic, increasingly routine booster landings and spectacular stunts like the launch of Musk’s Tesla Roadster on the maiden flight of the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket last month.

A replay of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launching the Global Positioning System 2F-12 satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida, completing 27 years and 61 flights of the GPS 2 generation.