Photos: Delta 4 rocket fires off the pad before sunset

A modified sounding rocket originally designed to loft science instruments on high-altitude suborbital arcs blasted off Saturday from the Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan and soared into orbit to become the world’s smallest satellite launcher.

The Atlas 5 rocket emerges Monday from the Vertical Integration Facility for rollout to Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in preparation to launch the Orbital ATK Cygnus resupply ship to the International Space Station.

Running through a practice countdown to check systems before launching a NASA sample-return probe to Asteroid Bennu in exactly two weeks, an Atlas 5 successfully completed its Wet Dress Rehearsal today.