Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

Gearing up for a predawn blastoff July 31, launch crews have positioned a Delta 4-Heavy rocket in the starting blocks on a seaside launch complex at Cape Canaveral as engineers inside a tightly-controlled clean room a few miles away put the final touches on a NASA probe that will travel closer to the sun than any mission before.

Take a look back on the liftoff of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on its first orbital test flight Dec. 20 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with these photos showing the capsule streaking into space at dawn.

Northrop Grumman’s launch team aborted an Antares rocket launch from Virginia’s Eastern Shore minutes before liftoff Sunday evening. The rocket is set to loft a Cygnus cargo freighter toward the International Space Station with nearly four tons of supplies and experiments.