Video: Falcon 9 fires up engines on pad 39A (members only)

Joining the video podcast on Friday, April 19, in this episode were Marina Koren, staff writer for The Atlantic, and Jack Kuhr, research editor for Payload Space.

Rolling out for its first liftoff of the year, an Ariane 5 rocket journeyed out of a launcher assembly building Thursday and rode railroad tracks to its launch pad in French Guiana with two European communications satellites.

Five years ago today — July 8, 2011 — Atlantis launched on the final space shuttle mission after 31 years as the centerpiece of America’s human spaceflight endeavors.