Cygnus OA-6: What’s onboard?

Meteorologists are anticipating favorable odds of good weather during the countdown to launch an Atlas 5 rocket and U.S. military satellite on Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral.

A billion-dollar U.S. military satellite rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket into orbit Friday night from Cape Canaveral, joining a network of space sentinels warning of threatening missile launches from North Korea, or any other place on the globe.

This collection of photographs shows the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellite No. 7 being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 nose cone and hoisted atop the rocket for launch July 22.