Q&A with Steve Skladanek, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off Thursday night with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale satellite quartet in a successful flight from Cape Canaveral.

A NASA spacecraft under construction for launch in 2016 to retrieve samples from asteroid Bennu could benefit from an extra load of fuel, allowing an extended stay at the asteroid or a return to Earth a year early.

The 8-million-pound mobile service tower is retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 19-story-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on NROL-55.