Photos: Atlas 5 on the pad awaiting liftoff on NROL-52

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, flying in its basic two-stage configuration with no strap-on solids, was stacked aboard a mobile launch platform at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility on Feb. 22 and 23 in preparation to send Orbital ATK’s S.S. John Glenn cargo ship into orbit for the International Space Station.

Go behind the scenes to see the labor it takes to deliver a satellite to its launch base, in this case NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M scheduled for launch Aug. 3 atop an Atlas 5 rocket.

Boeing and NASA officials said Thursday the first launch of astronauts on Boeing’s delay-prone Starliner crew capsule won’t happen in July after engineers recently discovered a problem with the spacecraft’s parachute system and identified flammable tape around wiring harnesses inside the vehicle.