Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

A tropical storm barreling towards the Florida peninsula caused United Launch Alliance (ULA) to stand down from an Atlas 5 launch planned for Tuesday on a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, equipped with three strap-on solid-propellant boosters for added performance, was transfered from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today for Sunday’s launch of the commercial EchoStar 19 communications satellite.

A winged Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet off the east coast of Florida and fired into orbit Thursday with eight research satellites to fly around the tropics and return measurements of winds at the cores of hurricanes.