Photos: Pad cameras capture Atlas 5 launch

Two days after blasting off from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Orbital ATK’s Cygnus supply ship reached its destination Tuesday. The automated spacecraft packed with 3.7 tons of supplies and experiments was captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 5:04 a.m. EST (1004 GMT).

Already shrouded in the Atlas 5 rocket’s Extra Extended Payload Fairing (XEPF) aluminum nose cone, the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-61 satellite was delivered to Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility on Tuesday, July 19 and lifted aboard the United Launch Alliance vehicle for flight.

Three veteran space fliers rode a Soyuz rocket into orbit Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, heading to the International Space Station for a five-month stay.