Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out for launch

A powerful commercial communications satellite to broadcast Internet signals over the Asia-Pacific region has arrived at Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations ahead of a planned Dec. 15 liftoff on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

This gallery of U.S. Air Force photos show technicians, wearing protective SCAPE suits, initially check for hazardous hypergolic fuel vapors around the X-37B spaceplane on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway and the subsequent tow of the vehicle to its newly-renovated hangar at the Kennedy Space Center.

The U.S. Space Force has decided to delay the planned late February launch of two military satellites aboard a ULA Atlas 5 rocket to “evaluate readiness” of one of the payloads, giving officials a window to move forward the liftoff of an unpiloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule to no earlier than March 25.