Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad at sundown

With the performance hit on the Atlas 5 rocket’s most recent flight last month now isolated to a faulty valve, preparations to resume the manifest are underway as United Launch Alliance workers stack the next booster for blastoff this summer.

United Launch Alliance teams mounted a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on top of an Atlas 5 rocket Monday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for a liftoff scheduled just after sunset Nov. 3.

An early bird rocket launch from the Florida spaceport will take to the skies before dawn Saturday when an Atlas 5 lofts a classified U.S. government satellite.