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Atlas 5 launch on track for Thursday, SpaceX mission expected to slip
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is set to roll to its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, a day before liftoff with a new-generation NOAA weather satellite. The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Spanish communications satellite is expected to be shuffled after the Atlas 5 flight in a rapid-fire launch sequence at the Florida spaceport this week.

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket and GOES-S weather satellite assembled for launch
Technicians around Cape Canaveral spent the last four weeks assembling a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and preparing a Lockheed Martin-built NOAA weather satellite for liftoff March 1.

GOES-S weather observatory hoisted atop Atlas 5 rocket
NOAA’s next geostationary weather satellite, GOES-S, was raised on top of an Atlas 5 launcher Friday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for liftoff March 1 to keep watch over the Pacific Ocean and the Western United States.

NASA gears up for brisk launch pace, starting with weather satellite
Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center tasked with overseeing launches of scientific satellites and interplanetary probes will be responsible later this year for ensuring six major missions safely get into space over a span of a little more than six months, beginning with the launch of NOAA's new GOES-S weather observatory on an Atlas 5 rocket March 1.

End to government shutdown should limit impact on space operations
NASA and the U.S. Air Force are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday after lawmakers passed a budget bill Monday evening, ending a government funding lapse that threatened to cut off live television coverage of an International Space Station spacewalk and interrupt SpaceX launch operations in Florida and California.

Lawmakers question safety, schedule for Boeing/SpaceX commercial crew ships
Boeing and SpaceX hope to launch commercial crew ferry ships on long-awaited test flights later this year, but both companies face major challenges getting the spacecraft certified before late 2019 when seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft will no longer be easily available for NASA space station crews, officials told lawmakers Wednesday.

GOES-S weather satellite arrives in Florida for launch preparations
NOAA's latest weather satellite, a new-generation geostationary observatory named GOES-S, landed at the Kennedy Space Center's former space shuttle runway Monday aboard a U.S. Air Force transport jet, ready to begin final preparations for launch March 1 on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Photos: Delta 2 climbs into the night from Vandenberg Air Force Base
Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's Central Coast on its third try, United Launch Alliance's Delta 2 rocket lifted off Saturday with NOAA's JPSS 1 polar-orbiting weather satellite.

Penultimate Delta 2 rocket launch lofts advanced polar-orbiting weather satellite
A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket climbed into space Saturday from California with a $1.6 billion polar-orbiting weather satellite for NOAA, the first of four upgraded observatories designed to keep vital meteorological data flowing to forecasters for the next two decades.

Video: JPSS 1 weather satellite deploys from Delta 2 rocket
NOAA's new JPSS 1 weather satellite deployed from its Delta 2 launcher in an orbit more than 500 miles above Earth nearly one hour after blasting off from California.