Photos: Tuesday’s Atlas 5 rollout

Climbing away from Earth on the power of its liquid hydrogen-fueled main engine and twin solid rockets, a Delta 4 booster successfully launched a new Global Positioning System satellite Wednesday to benefit U.S. military operations and civilian society as a whole.

It is a rocket like no other, a vehicle with a single solid-fuel booster mounted to its side, that will launch NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe next month to bring back a sample of Asteroid Bennu.

This is the launch timeline to be followed by the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral with the SBIRS GEO 5 satellite for U.S. military infrared reconnaissance.