Delta 4 launch seen from press viewing site (members only)

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing a million pounds, unleashes 1.6 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-52 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral.

Air Force meteorologists are giving favorable weather odds for the Delta 4 rocket to launch a pair of space surveillance satellites early Friday morning from Cape Canaveral.

Follow the key events of the Soyuz rocket’s ascent into orbit from the Guiana Space Center with two satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation system.