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

Watch a replay of the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California carrying Taiwan’s Formosat 5 Earth observation satellite.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Cape Canaveral with the U.S. Space Force’s newest third-generation Global Positioning System navigation satellite, helping clear the way for the launch of SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon astronaut mission later this month.

This collection of photographs shows the National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-45 payload, already encapsulated in the Delta 4 nose cone, being moved from the payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex 6 and lifted atop the United Launch Alliance rocket for flight from Vandenberg.