OSIRIS-REx launch as seen from NASA Press Site

This photo gallery includes a series of spectacular pictures of the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket Nov. 13 from Cape Canaveral with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The most powerful version of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) today on a three-hour flight to deploy a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite into orbit. Follow the mission in our live journal.

A United Launch Alliance arrived at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad Friday morning after rolling out of its vertical hangar with three U.S. Air Force satellites designed to provide communications to military leaders and test new in-orbit inspection and surveillance technology.