Photos: Atlas launch seen from press site

DigitalGlobe’s 360 virtual reality preview of Friday’s WorldView 4 satellite launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

A NASA spacecraft that will fly closer to the sun than any mission before will launch on a Delta 4-Heavy rocket in 2018, requiring a boost from the largest active launcher in the U.S. inventory and repeated flybys around Venus to reach an operating post inside the solar atmosphere.

The head of the launch enterprise directorate at the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, Claire Leon, spoke with reporters March 15 about the military’s award of a GPS launch contract to SpaceX, and she discussed plans for more head-to-head launch contract competitions in the coming months.