Photos: Tuesday’s Atlas 5 rollout

A Japanese H-2A rocket, carrying the Michibiki 2 navigation satellite, lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 0017:46 GMT Thursday (8:17:46 p.m. EDT Wednesday).

Delays in the debut of SpaceX’s huge Falcon Heavy rocket have prompted ViaSat to move the launch of a high-speed Internet communications satellite from the new privately-developed booster to an Ariane 5 flight in early 2017, officials said last week.

Resembling a cocooned insect with antennas and appendages tucked snuggly to its body for launch, NASA’s latest communications relay hub will be shot into space Friday to blossom in geosynchronous orbit for routing signals to and from the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and three dozen science observatories.