Photos: Delta 4 powers from launch pad on military mission

United Launch Alliance could load cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into a Vulcan rocket test article at Cape Canaveral for the first time in the coming weeks, timing key tests for the next-generation rocket in between flights of Atlas 5 rockets that will share the same launch complex for the next few years.

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket was hydraulically hoisted vertical Sunday morning at launch pad 39A, less than 12 hours before a scheduled blastoff with the Intelsat 35e communications satellite.

For the fourth time this week, a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral was stopped with seconds remaining in the countdown Friday night, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket automatically aborted its liftoff with a new GPS navigation satellite during the engine startup sequence.