Photos: Atlas 5 rocket powers NROL-52 payload to space

Russian and European teams at the Guiana Space Center in South America plan to detach a UAE spy satellite from its Soyuz launcher to replace the rocket’s Fregat upper stage, forcing a likely delay until April from the mission’s original launch date of Friday.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket rolled out of its hangar and up the ramp to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then was raised vertical at the seaside launch complex early Monday in preparation for a late-night liftoff with two dozen weather observation and technology demonstration satellites.

The first launch from Cape Canaveral this year placed into orbit an Indonesian communications satellite, a privately-funded Israeli moon lander, and an experimental space surveillance microsatellite for the U.S. Air Force.