Photos: NROL-42 payload joins Atlas 5 booster for launch

After being put back in position around the Delta 4-Heavy rocket after Thursday’s weather scrub, the 330-foot tall mobile service tower is retracted again at Cape Canaveral’s pad 37B for launch that will place the NROL-37 payload into Earth orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher rocketed into orbit Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, climbing away from a hillside launch complex just after sunrise with 10 Iridium communications satellites.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral today at 7:42 p.m. EST (0042 GMT) to deploy the U.S. military’s SBIRS GEO Flight 3 observatory, equipped with advanced telescopic infrared vision to spot enemy missile launches, for early warning surveillance.