Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

The Dragon spaceship poised for launch Tuesday will carry more than 2.5 tons of equipment for the International Space Station’s six-person crew, making the first U.S. supply delivery to the orbiting research complex since the crash of an Antares cargo rocket in October.

Technicians began the painstaking work of assembling a powerful Atlas 5 rocket today, a launcher that will deploy an advanced satellite to substantially improve U.S. weather forecasting.

A Falcon 9 rocket booster which first flew in May took off for the second time Tuesday from Cape Canaveral carrying the Indonesian Merah Putih communications satellite.