Live views of launch pad 39A (members only)

A small spacecraft attempting to become the first privately-funded probe to accomplish a controlled landing on the moon likely fell to the lunar surface after running out of fuel Tuesday, according to the Japanese company ispace, which managed the mission.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing a million pounds, unleashes two million pounds of thrust from its main engine and three solid-fuel boosters today to launch the EchoStar 19 commercial Internet broadcast satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Six days after SpaceX fired its last Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, another launcher rolled to historic pad 39A and ignited its nine Merlin 1D engines at sunset Thursday in preparation for a commercial satellite delivery mission Sunday for Intelsat.