Atlas V rocket lifts off from South Florida pad, carrying a communications satellite aloft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A communications satellite has been launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carried aloft aboard an Atlas 5 rocket.

The Atlas V lifted off at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday through a dark and cloudy sky after several weather-related delays. Liftoff came near the end of a nearly 2 and 1/2 hour window.

United Launch Alliance, which is behind the Atlas V, oversaw the mission launching the so-called CLIO satellite built by Lockheed-Martin. Officials released no information about the satellite’s mission nor for which government agency it was sent into space.

Space officials have said the satellite was built using commercial technology found in hundreds of other private and government satellites currently in orbit.

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