Atlas 5

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Friday on a six-hour climb to geosynchronous orbit, deploying a classified payload and a U.S. Space Force satellite to test an improved infrared heat-sensitive sensor design that could help detect and track enemy hypersonic missiles.

Officials scrubbed the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. Space Force Thursday due to the risk of lightning from nearby thunderstorms, delaying the liftoff of the $1.1 billon mission until Friday evening.

Dodging stormy weather in Central Florida, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT) Friday, carrying two experimental satellites for the U.S. Space Force on a six-hour climb toward geosynchronous orbit.

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday, moving the launcher into position for liftoff Thursday evening with a pair of geostationary satellites for the U.S. Space Force.

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral are in the final week of preparations for the next flight of an Atlas 5 rocket, set for liftoff with two U.S. military technology demonstration satellites June 30, a one-day delay after bad weather held up launch processing.

United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, moving into the starting position for a critical unpiloted demo flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule. Unlike the first Starliner test flight, the spacecraft’s launch abort system will be armed during the climb to space Thursday.