Photos: Gantry rolled back to reveal Atlas 5 rocket for launch

Freed from a legal restriction officials said limited its ability to compete for future U.S. military satellite launches, United Launch Alliance has ordered 20 new RD-180 engines from Russia that will keep the Atlas 5 rocket flying into the early 2020s.

With the performance hit on the Atlas 5 rocket’s most recent flight last month now isolated to a faulty valve, preparations to resume the manifest are underway as United Launch Alliance workers stack the next booster for blastoff this summer.

An Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral carrying the SBIRS GEO-4 missile early warning satellite in this video shot from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site.