Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out for launch

Launching the high-tech GOES-R satellite to revolutionize U.S. weather forecasting, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral on Saturday at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT).

An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified national security satellite was rolled to the launch pad this morning for Thursday’s flight to bolster the U.S. intelligence-gathering space architecture.

NASA and Boeing have awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne widely-anticipated contracts to restart the production of simplified shuttle-era rocket engines for the heavy-lift Space Launch System and supply the propulsion system for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule, officials announced this week.