Video: X-37B payload mated to Atlas 5

Continuing a run of military satellite deployments this summer, United Launch Alliance has begun stacking the Atlas 5 rocket that will boost the Navy’s next mobile communications craft.

NASA’s new communications satellite, launched to a preliminary orbit August 18, has ascended to geosynchronous altitude more than 22,000 miles up, deployed its giant antennas and extended twin solar arrays to begin in-space commissioning.

Overcoming a dynamic and stormy weather pattern in Central Florida, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Israeli-owned Amos 17 commercial communications satellite Tuesday at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT).