April 8, 2026
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Breaking News
  • [ April 5, 2026 ] Artemis astronauts send down Easter message, prep for lunar fly around Monday Artemis
  • [ April 3, 2026 ] ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket launches its heaviest payload ever with fifth Amazon Leo mission Atlas 5
  • [ April 2, 2026 ] Artemis 2 crew blasts off on historic moon mission Artemis
  • [ April 1, 2026 ] Live coverage: NASA to launch Artemis 2, its first Moon-bound mission with astronauts since 1972 Artemis
  • [ March 30, 2026 ] Falcon 9 booster launches for record 34th time on Starlink delivery mission Falcon 9

Photos: More shots of Thursday’s Atlas 5 rocket launch

July 28, 2016 Justin Ray

Departing Cape Canaveral at 8:37 a.m. EDT Thursday, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted a classified national security satellite into orbit for deployment.

Photos by Alex Polimeni/Spaceflight Now

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See earlier NROL-61 coverage.

Our Atlas archive.

  • Atlas 5
  • AV-065
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Chinese rocket fails during launch of Indonesian communications satellite

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A Long March 3B rocket malfunctioned during the launch of an Indonesian communications satellite Thursday, leading to sightings of fiery debris in the skies over Guam.

Mission Reports

Blue Origin ‘one step closer’ to human flights after successful suborbital launch

May 2, 2019 Stephen Clark

Taking another step toward flying space tourists to the edge of space, Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin again flew its New Shepard suborbital booster Thursday with a package of microgravity research experiments.

Atlas 5

Back-to-back launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral this weekend

May 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Working under physical distancing requirements and other precautions against the coronavirus pandemic, range teams at Cape Canaveral are preparing for launches of Atlas 5 and Falcon 9 rockets from neighboring pads this weekend.

News Headlines

  • Artemis astronauts send down Easter message, prep for lunar fly around Monday
    April 5, 2026
  • ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket launches its heaviest payload ever with fifth Amazon Leo mission
    April 3, 2026
  • Artemis 2 crew blasts off on historic moon mission
    April 2, 2026
  • Live coverage: NASA to launch Artemis 2, its first Moon-bound mission with astronauts since 1972
    April 1, 2026
  • Falcon 9 booster launches for record 34th time on Starlink delivery mission
    March 30, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 119 payloads on smallsat rideshare mission from California
    March 30, 2026
  • SpaceX launches batch of Starlink satellites from the West Coast
    March 26, 2026
  • NASA outlines ambitious $20 billion plan for moon base
    March 25, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    March 22, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 25 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
    March 20, 2026
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