Photos: Most powerful Atlas 5 puts 15,000-pound satellite in orbit

This is our comprehensive fact sheet previewing the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket deployment of the classified NROL-42 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Watch live video of launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as an Atlas 5 rocket is prepared to launch the ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission. The Atlas 5 rocket will be rolled from it’s Vertical Inegration Building (VIF) to the pad on Saturday morning.

Poised to embark on a 7-year adventure to Asteroid Bennu and back, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return spacecraft was moved to the launch pad today aboard its Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff Thursday evening.