Photos: Liftoff of Atlas 5 from California

The Air Force’s robotic X-37B mini space shuttle swooped out of obscurity today after 718 days spent in orbit on a secretive military mission, touching down at the Kennedy Space Center’s orbiter runway on autopilot, the military announced on Twitter.

The Delta 4 rocket to launch the next Global Positioning System satellite to sustain the orbiting navigation network has been rolled out to the launch pad.

The Atlas 5 rocket lifted the SBIRS GEO Flight 3 missile warning sentinel into orbit, advancing space technology for surveillance and security.