Atlas 5 streaks into space from Cape Canaveral

Rocketing through gloomy skies with a payload clouded in a veil of secrecy, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster fired away from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday to deploy a satellite thousands of miles above Earth.

The 189-foot-tall booster, glistening in frost from tens of thousands of gallons of super-cold cryogenic propellant, lit its Russian-made RD-180 engine and lifted off at 8:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0010 GMT Wednesday).

Riding a plume of rocket exhaust, the Atlas 5 rocket climbed through clouds left over from a series of evening thunderstorms that forced a two-hour, 26-minute weather delay. The fully-fueled rocket sat on the launch pad shielded by four lightning masts while the storms moved over Cape Canaveral and dissipated.

The clouds finally thinned enough to permit liftoff at the end of Tuesday's launch window.

The photos below show the Atlas 5 rocket's liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the mission.

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now