Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad at sundown

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.

Launching a high-capacity satellite to beam the Internet into homes across rural America, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday afternoon.

This photo gallery shows the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, already encapsulated in the 14-foot-diameter nose cone, being lifted atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base for liftoff Oct. 8.