An American built, Russian first stage powered Atlas V rocket in the 531 configuration successfully launched from it's launch pad at Cape Canaveral today at 07:XX UTC, September 18th 2013. The rocket was the 40th Atlas launch overall and carried the US Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite (AEHF) 3 into orbit. The AEHF satellites provide encrypted voice communications between US Forces and the President in the event of a nuclear war.
