Photos: Delta 4 awaits blastoff

A 151-foot-tall Soyuz launcher climbed into space from French Guiana on Thursday with the Boeing-built SES 15 communications satellite bound for an operating position over the Americas in geostationary orbit.

After back-to-back launches last weekend, SpaceX could launch its next Falcon 9 mission as soon as Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a high-power Intelsat communications satellite.

Soaring in fine fashion before daybreak, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket maneuvered a new spy satellite into a unique retrograde orbit Wednesday morning to join an expanding constellation of radar-imaging spacecraft.