Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

On top of an Atlas rocket, the place where orbital spaceflight for American astronauts began, will sit Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to launch humans into space starting next year.

Blue Origin launched its second heavy-lift New Glenn rocket Thursday, putting two small NASA satellites onto a long, looping course to Mars to learn more about how the sun has slowly blown away the red planet’s once thick atmosphere.

The static fire test was conducted by Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer of the GEM 63XL solid rocket booster that can be used to help power United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rockets. An in-flight anomaly was observed on one of those back in mid-February.