Photos: News media images of Atlas 5 launch

High-tech cameras made in Indiana will soon be scanning across Asia, Australia, the Americas and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to give weather forecasters an unrivaled minute-by-minute glimpse of the development and movement of hurricanes, typhoons and storm systems.

United Launch Alliance and SpaceX beat out Northrop Grumman and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for billions of dollars in U.S. military rocket contracts, and will share the load in launching the Pentagon’s highest-priority national security space missions through 2027, officials announced Friday.

Liftoff from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened Saturday at 1:46 a.m. EDT (0546 UTC).