Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

United Launch Alliance recently raised a Delta 4-Heavy rocket, one of four left in the company’s backlog, vertical on its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in preparation for liftoff with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite at the end of April.

Rodents, water filters and a laser relay are among the 6,500 pounds of science and equipment that will launch to the International Space Station on Thursday evening. A Falcon 9 rocket launched carrying a SpaceX Cargo Dragon at 8:28 p.m. EST (0128 UTC on Nov. 10) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 189 feet tall and and weighing 720,000 pounds, unleashes 860,000 pounds of thrust from its main engine to launch the SBIRS GEO Flight 3 early-warning satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.