Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ferried a multinational crew into orbit at the break of dawn Friday with a spectacular sky-lighting launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, dazzling early risers along the East Coast with a flawless start to a planned six-month expedition on the International Space Station.

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship rocketed into orbit from Virginia Friday night on an Antares launcher, taking aim on the International Space Station with an advanced $23 million zero-gravity titanium toilet and several tons of other gear.

Go behind the scenes to see the labor it takes to deliver a satellite to its launch base, in this case NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M scheduled for launch Aug. 3 atop an Atlas 5 rocket.