Photos: Delta 4 powers from pad with international satellite

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying more than 7,200 pounds of provisions and experiments approached the International Space Station two days after its launch from Virginia, moving close enough for capture by the station’s robotic arm at 5:28 a.m. EST (1028 GMT) Monday.

Under a brilliant moon, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flashed to life and vaulted away from Cape Canaveral late Sunday, boosting the European Space Agency’s $1.5 billion Solar Orbiter probe out of Earth’s gravitational grip toward a multi-year voyage around the sun that will give scientists their first glimpse of the star’s poles.

The mobile service tower retracts from the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 191-foot-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, carrying the classified NROL-79 national security payload for the U.S. government.