Photos: Atlas 5 fulfills MUOS launch series with fifth successful launch

NOAA’s newest weather satellite, heading for a perch with coverage over the western United States and the Pacific Ocean, launched March 1 from Cape Canaveral on top of an Atlas 5 rocket.

Onboard video cameras captured critical events during the 50th Atlas 5 rocket launch, beaming back views in stunning clarity of staging and spacecraft separation.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, built to find planets around other stars that are close enough for detailed follow-ups by future telescopes, launched Wednesday into a unique high-altitude orbit on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.