Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket stands 233 feet tall at Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, ready for liftoff Saturday night carrying a top secret U.S. government spy satellite into orbit.

There was a groundbreaking Friday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 to start building the astronaut access tower to board Boeing’s CST-100 capsules atop United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.

A Russian-built satellite hosting an array of X-ray telescopes is awaiting launch Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to measure the mass and distance of colossal clusters of galaxies throughout the universe.