Photos: Delta 4 lights up the sky for night owl launch

Astra’s next small satellite launcher has shipped to Kodiak Island in Alaska for final preparations ahead of a test flight planned in early August, five months after the company’s first orbital rocket faltered before getting off the ground.

The penultimate satellite in the current generation of Global Positioning System spacecraft will be deployed Friday, capping a hectic four weeks with three launches from two coasts for the Atlas 5 rocket fleet.

Boeing officials said Wednesday that the company is targeting Dec. 17 for the launch of the first unpiloted orbital test flight of the new Starliner crew capsule from Cape Canaveral on a week-long demonstration mission to the International Space Station, a precursor to a mission with astronauts next year.