Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

Poor weather in the offshore recovery zone east of Florida forced SpaceX and NASA to delay the departure of an upgraded Cargo Dragon spaceship from International Space Station Monday. The capsule is bringing home several tons of research equipment, specimens, and other equipment.

An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified national security satellite was rolled to the launch pad this morning for Thursday’s flight to bolster the U.S. intelligence-gathering space architecture.

A U.S. military satellite that will fortify the “anytime, anywhere” communications infrastructure used by soldiers, ships, aircraft and drones was launched into orbit Thursday to improve the global connectivity that encompasses the planet.