Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars

The belated launch of a powerful Earth-imaging satellite that will take the highest resolution pictures in the market, postponed by an unprecedented wildfire near the pad, is scheduled to fly on Friday.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT) today to boost Orbital ATK’s commercially-operated Cygnus cargo ship toward a Saturday rendezvous with the International Space Station. Follow the ascent in our live journal.

A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to loft three military satellites for the U.S. Air Force on a mission codenamed AFSPC 11. This timeline shows the major mission events planned over a six-hour flight to a near-geostationary orbit.