Gallery: Antares rocket explodes

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was transfered from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today for Tuesday’s launch of a commercially-operated cargo ship to resupply the International Space Station.

Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket returned to flight Oct. 17 with a successful evening launch from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a beacon visible for hundreds of miles along the U.S. East Coast as the 13-story rocket set course for a cargo delivery to the International Space Station.

An unmanned cargo freighter carrying nearly four tons of supplies and science, launched and operated commercially for NASA, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday atop an Atlas 5 rocket bound for the International Space Station.