Watch live video of the Solar Orbiter launch pad at Cape Canaveral (members only)

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have split up to $645 million in new contracts to deploy U.S. Air Force navigation and surveillance satellites into orbit from 2019 through 2021.

Bulking up NASA’s constellation of tracking stations in the sky that provides critical links between orbiting spacecraft and ground control, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed a new communications hub in space today.

The United States Space Force 51 (USSF-51) mission was the 58th and final time an Atlas 5 rocket launches a national security payload. Liftoff happened at Tuesday, July 30, during a three-hour window that opens at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 UTC).