CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA launched the last of its longtime tracking and communication satellites on Friday, a vital link to astronauts in orbit as well as the Hubble Space Telescope.

The end of the era came with a morning liftoff of TDRS-M, the 13th satellite in the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network . It rode to orbit aboard an unmanned Atlas V rocket. There were handshakes all around two hours later, when the satellite successfully separated from the rocket's upper stage.

"''We're going to really celebrate this one," said launch director Tim Dunn.

NASA has been launching TDRS...