Gallery: Antares rocket explodes

Technicians working at launch pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia completed the final loading of cargo into Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship late Tuesday, and the Antares rocket was raised vertical again in preparation for Wednesday’s countdown.

Peering down at the Earth’s atmosphere from a research window aboard the International Space Station, a new science instrument launching Tuesday will compose unprecedented characterizations of the chemical makeup of shooting stars.

The NASA TV broadcast of the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship bound for the International Space Station on March 22, 2016. (Membership Required)