Video: Time-lapse of Atlas 5’s rollout for launch of GOES-S (members only)

Making its second launch in just six days, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight blasted off Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Streaking away from Cape Canaveral less than an hour before sunrise Wednesday, an Atlas 5 launcher painted a memorable spectacle in the skies over Florida, catching the first rays of the morning as it rocketed out of the stratosphere with a U.S. Navy communications satellite.

Less than three months after rocketing into space, the commercial WorldView 4 Earth-imagery satellite has finished in-orbit testing and calibration to begin operations for DigitalGlobe.