Photos: Payload with whimsical logo painted on nose cone lifted atop Atlas

A replay of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launching the classified NROL-55 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

These photos taken Friday evening show the mobile gantry being wheeled away from a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral, hours before its scheduled blastoff with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.

The stacking of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket this week at Cape Canaveral signals the start of a busy six-week campaign to ready ULA’s trusty workhorse launcher for its debut in a new human-rated configuration in mid-December.