The anticipated use of an established rocket

I had dinner in the oven yesterday when I realised the latest scheduled time for the launch of an Atlas V rocket with the replacement Cygnus cargo spacecraft would be before that dinner had finished cooking, and hurried back to my computer and the official NASA streaming video. On Thursday and Friday, I had tried watching the launch coverage (on those days, the shifting launch window had it scheduled for after I'd eaten), but both attempts kept being put off because of bad weather into darkness and the end of the launch windows. Yesterday, the clouds at Cape Canaveral were low, but everything else seemed to work and the rocket blasted off into the clouds; most of the video that followed was from the ridealong camera. I managed to keep watching until the second stage took over, the rocket not having flown all the way into night yet, and then I had to go and put the rest of my dinner together.

The use of an Atlas rocket instead of the specially designed booster used for the Cygnus before that had blown up on liftoff the last time did get my attention, given I've associated it before with the larger and further-going space probes, and I'm wondering if this rocket is more expensive or about the same price. However, I also know the Atlas is being planned to be used to launch a people-carrying capsule, so perhaps this counts as a step to that.