Photos: Atlas 5 rocket powers NROL-52 payload to space

With the Space Launch System’s inaugural test flight now officially delayed to November 2021, NASA says work halted by the coronavirus pandemic will resume within weeks to prepare for the first test-firing of the SLS core stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

An upgraded version of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo freighter launched Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, loaded with 3.2 tons of supplies and experiments in the first of at least nine resupply flights to the International Space Station under a new NASA contract.

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