Photos: Delta 4-Heavy launch as seen from press site

Thirteen U.S.-built nanosatellites hitched a ride to space Tuesday with a sharp-eyed Indian Earth-imaging observatory at the top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

SpaceX plans to launch its next group of Starlink broadband satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as soon as Tuesday, Jan. 21, from Cape Canaveral, two days after the company is scheduled to launch a modified Falcon 9 booster from a separate facility at the Florida spaceport to test the Crew Dragon spaceship’s emergency escape system.

Culminating years of construction and testing, a $1.2 billion satellite designed to spot and track enemy missiles threatening the United States homeland, its deployed military forces abroad or allied nations will ascend to a surveillance post in space Thursday.