Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

Launching the commercial WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellite for DigitalGlobe, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base today at 10:30 a.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EST; 1830 GMT).

This collection of photographs shows the Air Force’s Global Positioning System 2F-12 navigation satellite being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 nose cone and hoisted atop the rocket for flight on Friday morning.

SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon capsule was delivered to Cape Canaveral this week from a California factory for a liftoff as soon as this spring with veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a test flight to the International Space Station, officials announced Friday.