Photos: Atlas 5 launches new weather observer

Look back on last week’s liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, capping a busy two weeks for the launch company with a successful satellite deployment flight for Intelsat.

NASA’s ICESat 2 satellite has been bolted atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as ground teams prepare for the final liftoff of the workhorse launcher Sept. 15.

In nearly five years on the job as Boeing’s Space Launch System program manager, John Shannon has presided over the completion of the first SLS core stage inside a cavernous factory in New Orleans.