The 8-million-pound mobile service tower is retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 20-story-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Credit: ULA
Credit: ULACredit: ULA
Credit: James Murati/BioneticsCredit: James Murati/Bionetics
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office at 5:32 p.m. EST (2232 GMT) Friday. The launcher debuted new Northrop Grumman-built solid rocket boosters.
An Atlas 5 booster core and Centaur upper stage have been stacked to launch another commercial freighter with supplies and scientific research gear to the International Space Station next month.
A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System communications satellite No. 4.