Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

Powered by two Russian-made RD-181 main engines, a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket fired into a mostly sunny sky Saturday afternoon over Virginia’s Eastern Shore carrying nearly 7,500 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station.

These photographs span activities in March as the news media got an up-close viewing of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship, its placement aboard a mobile transporter and delivery of the craft to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket assembly building for hoisting and mating. Liftoff is scheduled for April 18.

NASA is moving forward with a crucial test-firing of the core stage of the first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket as soon as Jan. 17 after engineers were satisfied with the results of a fueling test last month.