Watch live video of the Solar Orbiter launch pad at Cape Canaveral (members only)

A recap of the successful start to Orbital ATK’s OA-7 resupply mission to the International Space Station is given in this post-launch news conference held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center following the Atlas 5 rocket’s delivery of the Cygnus cargo ship into space.

Under a brilliant moon, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flashed to life and vaulted away from Cape Canaveral late Sunday, boosting the European Space Agency’s $1.5 billion Solar Orbiter probe out of Earth’s gravitational grip toward a multi-year voyage around the sun that will give scientists their first glimpse of the star’s poles.

These photographs span activities in March as the news media got an up-close viewing of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship, its placement aboard a mobile transporter and delivery of the craft to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket assembly building for hoisting and mating. Liftoff is scheduled for April 18.