Photos: Falcon takes flight

Follow the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad with the U.S. Air Force’s GPS 2F-10 navigation satellite.

After years of delays, the core stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System moon rocket rolled out of its New Orleans factory Wednesday, heading for a NASA site in Mississippi for a test-firing before engineers hope to ship the rocket to its Florida launch base by this fall.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 UTC).