Photos: Atlas 5 powers away with NROL-61 payload

Nearly a decade in the making, NASA and SpaceX have set May 27 as the target launch date for the first crewed space mission to launch into orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

The U.S. Defense Department’s internal watchdog has opened a probe into whether the Pentagon’s contracts with United Launch Alliance were properly awarded after a former ULA executive implied the government rigged a recent procurement in favor of the company.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — a branch of the country’s armed forces — launched a small military spacecraft into orbit Wednesday, ending a string of rocket failures in the nascent Iranian satellite program.