Photos: Tuesday’s Atlas 5 rollout

Taking advantage of available astronaut time, the International Space Station’s crew will cast off the commercial Orbital ATK Cygnus freighter on Sunday morning nearly six weeks ahead of schedule.

Four magnetic explosion probes in a towering stack atop an Atlas 5 rocket rode a fountain of flame off the launch pad and into Earth orbit Thursday night for a $1.1 billion NASA science investigation into a universal force of nature.

For the second time this week, United Launch Alliance has delivered an Air Force payload to one of its Cape Canaveral pads for liftoff in July.