Photos: Delta 4 powers from launch pad on military mission

Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California’s Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA’s InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet.

The launch of a NASA spacecraft designed to smash into an asteroid to try out a technique that could protect Earth from threatening space rocks has slipped from July until November, at the earliest, after development delays partially caused by coronavirus-related work slowdowns.

Photos captured by remote cameras placed at launch pad 39A show SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket soaring skyward Thursday evening atop more than 5 million pounds of thrust.