Air Force

The main engine rumbling to life. Ice shards breaking free. The rocket lumbering off the pad. The battle against gravity being won once again. That was the scene as the Atlas 5 took flight to cap a generation of Global Positioning System satellites.

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the GPS 2F-12 satellite for use by the U.S. military and billions of civilians around the world.