NASA astronaut Rex Walheim excited about Orion test flight

Take another look back at the Orion spaceship’s launch atop a Delta 4-Heavy rocket on Dec. 5 with this gallery of NASA and United Launch Alliance photos.

Launch teams are readying three rockets for a series of blastoffs this week from Cape Canaveral to loft a classified orbiting spy platform for the U.S. government, a long-delayed Argentine radar imaging payload, and the next set of Starlink broadband satellites.

The next Delta 4-Heavy rocket was raised vertical Friday at Cape Canaveral, signaling the start of a comprehensive series of pre-flight tests before liftoff next year with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite.