Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

The 15th resupply mission to the International Space Station by a Cygnus cargo freighter lifted off at 12:36 p.m. EST (1736 GMT) Saturday aboard an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Northrop Grumman-owned spacecraft is carrying more than 8,000 pounds of experiments and provisions for the space station and its seven-person crew. Capture by the station’s robotic arm occurred at 4:38 a.m. EST (0938 GMT) Monday.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, standing 217 feet tall and weighing 900,000 pounds, unleashes 1.8 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and four side-mounted boosters at 8:18 p.m. EDT Saturday (0018 GMT Sunday) to launch the ninth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite for U.S. military and allied communications.

The U.S. military’s highest capacity communications satellite ever built was successfully launched into space tonight, departing Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT).