Video: TDRS-M takes flight atop Atlas 5

Technicians began the painstaking work of assembling a powerful Atlas 5 rocket today, a launcher that will deploy an advanced satellite to substantially improve U.S. weather forecasting.

Canada’s three new Radarsat Earth observation satellites were encapsulated inside the payload fairing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ahead of their liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

A robotic space shuttle with stubby wings, tail fins, its belly covered with black thermal tiles, clam-shell doors that swing open to reveal a payload bay and a solar array for ultralong-duration missions rode into orbit Wednesday on the fourth mission of the Air Force’s reusable X-37B spaceplane project.