Video: Atlas 5 GPS 2F-8 Launch Highlights

Crews hoisted a covert spacecraft atop an Atlas 5 booster rocket this morning for its trek into an equatorial orbit next week.

The 330-foot-tall mobile service tower is rolled away from the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s pad 37B in the hours before the scheduled liftoff. The 9-million-pound gantry was retracted the length of a football field in preparation for launch of the Air Force’s WGS 9 communications satellite into Earth orbit.

The International Space Station crew reaches out with the Canadian robotic arm and grabs the free-flying Cygnus OA-7 commercial cargo ship filled with supplies, food and science gear.