Photos: Navy satellite wrapped up in Atlas rocket nose cone

The first launch by SpaceX for the U.S. Space Force on June 30 carried the third in a new line of modernized GPS navigation satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

Cape Canaveral was the point of origination for the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and the classified NROL-52 payload.

The last flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Medium rocket lifted off Aug. 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, riding more than 1.2 million pounds of thrust from a hydrogen-fueled main engine and two strap-on solid rocket motors.