Q&A with Tory Bruno, ULA’s chief executive

Bulking up NASA’s constellation of tracking stations in the sky that provides critical links between orbiting spacecraft and ground control, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed a new communications hub in space today.

This collection of photographs shows the Air Force’s Global Positioning System 2F-10 navigation satellite being encapsulated in the Atlas 5 nose cone and hoisted atop the rocket for launch July 15.

Rolling out on the eve of liftoff with the GOES-S weather satellite, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket journeyed 1,800 feet from its vertical assembly hangar to Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad Wednesday.