Photos: Delta 2 rocket blasts off with SMAP satellite

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo freighter departed the International Space Station Wednesday after delivering more than 7,800 pounds of equipment and experiments, heading for an extended mission with payloads to study fire behavior in microgravity and test a next-generation radio system.

Launching the high-tech GOES-R satellite to revolutionize U.S. weather forecasting, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral on Saturday at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT).

A new fixture on the Cape Canaveral skyline began rising Tuesday with the placement of the first of seven segments for a 200-foot-tall crew access tower at the Atlas 5 rocket’s seaside launch pad for astronauts boarding Boeing’s new commercial CST-100 Starliner spaceship.