Photos: Atlas 5 rocket on the pad with WorldView 4 satellite

Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft this week as it is closed up inside the nose cone of an Atlas 5 rocket for launch in September.

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.

Launching new Global Positioning System navigation satellites at a rate not seen in 21 years, this year’s fourth such deployment is coming up at midday Wednesday, Oct. 29 by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral.