Video: Atlas 5 launch with GOES-S viewed from KSC press site (members only)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries transferred an H-2A rocket to its launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Sunday, ready to commence a final countdown before liftoff with the Hope Mars mission for the United Arab Emirates.

When the first Delta 2 rocket took off on Valentine’s Day 1989, ideas like navigating by smartphone and driving robots on Mars were science fiction. More than 150 launches over the last 30 years helped change all that.

Four unidentified Russian military satellites rode a modified Soyuz booster into orbit Wednesday from a remote space base north of Moscow.