Photos: Atlas 5 launches new weather observer

A groundbreaking Friday ceremonially commenced construction of an astronaut access tower at United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch pad in Florida, a 200-foot-tall gantry that will add to the future of U.S. human spaceflight.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts blasted off from Kazakhstan Friday and docked with the International Space Station after a two-orbit chase, the first step in a record crew rotation requiring two launches and two landings with four different spacecraft in just three weeks.

Launching a high-capacity satellite to beam the Internet into homes across rural America, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday afternoon.