Photos: Gantry retracted from Atlas 5

This is our comprehensive fact sheet previewing the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket deployment of the classified NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The change in manifest comes as the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space continues the certification process for the Vulcan rocket. United Launch Alliance will begin stacking an Atlas rocket in the coming weeks.

An Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral carrying the SBIRS GEO-4 missile early warning satellite in this video shot from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site.