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

NASA has selected 14 companies for contracts of more than $370 million to advance technology for human missions to the moon and Mars. Most of the money will support flight demonstrations by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and other companies that could lead to in-space refueling and propellant depots for reusable lunar landers and deep space transportation vehicles.

NASA held a pre-launch briefing for the Parker Solar Probe mission on Thursday, August 9, 2018, at the Kennedy Space Center.

A collection of pad photos from the ULA Atlas 5 rocket launch of the X-37B spaceplane on its fourth mission taken by photographer Walter Scriptunas II.