Video: Atlas 5 launch with GOES-S viewed from KSC press site (members only)

The primary payload, NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) was joined by two rideshare payloads heading to Lagrange Point 1. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 UTC).

A $1.8 billion U.S. Air Force communications satellite rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket into orbit Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, joining three similar craft perched more than 22,000 miles above Earth to ensure government leaders can remain in contact with military commanders in the worst-case scenario of nuclear war.

Two SpaceX rockets are standing on launch pads several miles apart on Florida’s Space Coast awaiting launch opportunities Thursday and Friday, once an oft-delayed Delta 4-Heavy rocket from rival United Launch Alliance is able to blast off from Cape Canaveral with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite.