The US military should benefit from the launch of its latest communications satellite, AEHF-2. The military communications satellite was launched successfully at 1842 GMT on 4 May 2012 via a United Launch Alliance (ULA) operated ATLAS V 531 launch from Cape Canaveral.
The next launch into orbit was from China’s Jiuquan launch base when a Long March 2D/2 launched the Tian Hui 1B Earth observation satellite successfully at 0710 GMT on 6 May 2012.
The first Falcon 9/Dragon C2+ launch to the International Space Station was delayed to 19 May to conduct further software checks on the Dragon capsule.