Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral hoisted a Centaur upper stage on top of an Atlas 5 rocket Friday at launch pad 41, completing the initial build-up of the launch vehicle slated to carry Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into space in December on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft will launch onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 551 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It’s built on Boeing’s 702MP+ satellite bus.

If confirmed, Isaacman, 41, would be the fifth NASA administrator with spaceflight experience, replacing former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in early 1986.