Photos: Delta 4 lights up the sky for night owl launch

The next satellite to launch from Cape Canaveral — an essential communications satellite for the U.S. military and allied nations — was moved to the pad and mounted atop its Delta 4 rocket today.

Climbing away from Earth on the power of its liquid hydrogen-fueled main engine and twin solid rockets, a Delta 4 booster successfully launched a new Global Positioning System satellite Wednesday to benefit U.S. military operations and civilian society as a whole.

A top secret surveillance payload owned by the National Reconnaissance Office soared into space Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on top of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, entering an unusual orbit not previously used by the U.S. government’s spy satellite fleet.