Photos: Atlas launch seen from pad cameras

Freed from a legal restriction officials said limited its ability to compete for future U.S. military satellite launches, United Launch Alliance has ordered 20 new RD-180 engines from Russia that will keep the Atlas 5 rocket flying into the early 2020s.

An eight-ton cargo ship destined for the International Space Station was hoisted aboard its United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur booster rocket today in preparation for liftoff to the orbiting laboratory next week.

Launching a high-capacity satellite to beam the Internet into homes across rural America, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday afternoon.