The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was transferred from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today for Friday’s launch of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M that directly supports the International Space Station and various science missions.

Rocketing through gloomy skies with a payload clouded in a veil of secrecy, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired away from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday to deploy a satellite thousands of miles above Earth.

United Launch Alliance and Boeing teams worked through the weekend on closeouts of the Starliner crew capsule, inspections and final outfitting of the Atlas 5 rocket. A launch readiness review Tuesday approved the continuation of final preparations for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Friday of the first Starliner spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.