Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out for launch

NASA has selected United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket to dispatch the Lucy spacecraft on a mission from Cape Canaveral in October 2021 to fly by seven unexplored asteroids, including six objects locked in orbits leading and trailing Jupiter, where scientists expect swarms of miniature worlds could hold clues about the formation of the solar system.

These are artist’s concepts and press conference briefing slides from the United Launch Alliance unveiling of its new Vulcan rocket to debut in 2019.

An Atlas 5 rocket and a Starliner crew capsule stand at pad 41 in these images taken at sunset Dec. 18.