Photos: Thursday’s Atlas 5 rollout to launch pad

NASA officials cleared Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for flight Thursday after a “thorough and comprehensive” review of the crew capsule’s readiness, setting the stage for final pre-launch preparations at Cape Canaveral ahead of liftoff Dec. 20 on an unpiloted demonstration mission to the International Space Station.

Delays in the debut of SpaceX’s huge Falcon Heavy rocket have prompted ViaSat to move the launch of a high-speed Internet communications satellite from the new privately-developed booster to an Ariane 5 flight in early 2017, officials said last week.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket departed Cape Canaveral at 11:36 a.m. EDT (1536 GMT) to deploy the Global Positioning System 2F-10 navigation satellite.