Photos: Gantry retracted from Atlas 5

A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to launch the U.S. Air Force’s fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite from Cape Canaveral. This timeline shows the major mission events planned over a nearly six-hour flight to an optimized geostationary transfer orbit.

With five side-mounted solid rocket boosters for added power, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed the U.S. Navy’s fifth MUOS mobile communications satellite.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket stands atop Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on the eve of Wednesday’s NROL-79 satellite-deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.