Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

The first launch by SpaceX for the U.S. Space Force on June 30 carried the third in a new line of modernized GPS navigation satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, did his best to set low expectations heading into the first test flight of the gargantuan Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket this week. “Just don’t blow up the launch pad,” Musk said.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket sits peacefully inside its mobile service gantry on Tuesday afternoon, one day before its scheduled launch of the GPS 2F-9 navigation satellite.