Photos: Thursday’s Atlas 5 rollout to launch pad

Watch the pre-launch news conference held Monday, April 17 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to preview liftoff of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus OA-7 cargo ship aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket for the International Space Station.

Space missions dispatched into the solar system often have journeys lasting years before reaching a scientific payoff, but NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched last weekend on a speedy departure from planet Earth is already getting ready to sweep closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history during a flyby later this year.

Arianespace has received its first two confirmed launch contracts for Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket, and the company recently announced four more launch bookings to loft communications and weather satellites into orbit aboard Ariane 5 and Soyuz boosters from French Guiana.