Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out for launch

SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk win the lion’s share of public attention in the commercial rocket arena, with dramatic, increasingly routine booster landings and spectacular stunts like the launch of Musk’s Tesla Roadster on the maiden flight of the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket last month.

A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off into a brilliant morning sky over the Sunshine State on Wednesday, and these photos show the kerosene-fueled launcher climbing away from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.

The most powerful configuration of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket blasted off April 14 from Cape Canaveral, hauling multiple U.S. Air Force satellites to a perch high above the equator after piercing a clear evening sky over Florida’s Space Coast with 2.6 million pounds of thrust.