Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad at sundown

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was transfered from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today for Thursday’s launch of the U.S. military’s third SBIRS GEO missile warning satellite.

A light-class Electron launcher built and owned by Rocket Lab fired into orbit Thursday (U.S. time) from a privately-owned spaceport in New Zealand with a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency.

Watch a replay of the Atlas 5 rocket launch with the GOES-S weather satellite from Cape Canaveral, as seen from the Kennedy Space Center press site around 4 miles from the launch pad.