LIVE IMAGES: Refresh this page to see the latest images from the Atlas launch complex at Cape Canaveral.
9 p.m. update: Mission success! The Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed its military payload about 31 minutes after launch from complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Officials with United Launch Alliance say the rocket performed flawlessly.
8:23 p.m. update: The Atlas 5 blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:22 p.m., roaring skyward with a new military communications satellite on board. The multimillion-dollar payload is to be deployed from the rocket about 31 minutes into flight.
Fueling of kerosene and liquid oxygen and hydrogen has been completed on the Atlas 5 rocket that will loft an advanced military communications satellite during a launch window that runs from 8:22 to 9:33 p.m.
"It's been a perfect day. We're ready to rock and roll," said a spokesman for United Launch Alliance, the company providing launch services.
On the 11th flight of an Atlas 5 rocket, the Wideband Global SATCOM satellite will make a 31-minute trip to an orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth. It will orbit in the western Pacific area of opeations, over Korea, Hawaii and Southeast Asia, where significant U.S. military assets are located.
The $350 million satellite is the first of five has as much communications power as the entire ten satellites of the older systems.
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