Photos: Atlas launch seen from pad cameras

A $1.1 billion science investigation involving four formation-flying satellites circling the Earth will share a single Atlas 5 rocket launch Thursday night from Cape Canaveral to probe explosions in the magnetic field with millisecond speed.

As the internal investigation continues into the first stage performance trouble on the last Atlas 5 rocket launch, the next mission on the manifest has slipped to May 27.

Flying for the 155th and final time, a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket took off from California on Sept. 15 with NASA’s ICESat 2 satellite.