Video: Liftoff of Atlas 5 on space station cargo mission

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired into the night sky over Cape Canaveral just after midnight Wednesday, carrying the U.S. Air Force’s fourth AEHF communications satellite designed to enable secure voice, video and data links between U.S. and allied forces.

United Launch Alliance teams mounted a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on top of an Atlas 5 rocket Monday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for a liftoff scheduled just after sunset Nov. 3.

The Air Force will launch a second pair of small security probes 22,300 miles above the Earth using a Delta 4 rocket on Friday to alert ground controllers of impending space collisions and monitor potential meddling with U.S. orbiting assets.