Photos: Spectacular sunset launch of asteroid mission

A U.S. military satellite that will fortify the “anytime, anywhere” communications infrastructure used by soldiers, ships, aircraft and drones was launched into orbit Thursday to improve the global connectivity that encompasses the planet.

A Soyuz-2.1b booster loaded with 34 satellites for OneWeb’s global Internet network rolled out of its assembly building Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and rode a rail car to its launch pad for final preflight checks before liftoff Thursday.

The spacecraft named PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) has a nominal operating life of three years with the amount of fuel to potentially have it last a decade. It’s set to launch onboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, Feb. 6.