Video: Atlas 5 rolls out to launch pad with the Air Force’s AEHF 5 comsat (members only)

The first node of a space-based European laser communications network will soar into orbit Friday aboard a commercial Eutelsat broadcasting spacecraft, setting the keystone for a satellite system to relay vast volumes of imagery at lightning fast speeds.

A Russian Soyuz ferry ship carrying a Russian commander and two NASA astronauts caught up with the International Space Station Friday and executed a flawless docking to close out a two-day rendezvous that began with launch Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Take a look back at the Dec. 22 liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a launch that was visible across Southern California and as far away as Arizona as the booster climbed into sunlight at dusk to deliver 10 commercial communications satellites to orbit.