Atlas 5 NROL-55 launch full broadcast

The most powerful variants of the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets have been purchased by the Air Force to launch intelligence-gathering spacecraft for the U.S. government, and NASA has bought an Atlas 5 to deploy a critical polar-orbiting weather satellite.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 1:21 p.m. EDT (1721 GMT) with a satellite to replenish the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System navigation network.

Less than three months after rocketing into space, the commercial WorldView 4 Earth-imagery satellite has finished in-orbit testing and calibration to begin operations for DigitalGlobe.