Atlas 5 launches NROL-61 as seen from the NASA Press Site

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:49 a.m. local time (8:49 a.m. EDT; 1249 GMT) Thursday on the classified National Reconnaissance Office NROL-55 mission.

The Russian space agency has posted an astounding video recorded by cameras fastened aboard a Soyuz rocket that took off from the country’s new Siberian spaceport last month.

A record number of Atlas 5 launches, the return of Delta 2 and a Delta 4-Heavy at the dawn of a new space exploration era highlighted 2014 for United Launch Alliance.