Live coverage: Delta 2 launches

Here’s a look by the numbers of the previous Delta 4 flight history and the remaining flights of the rocket named Delta.

An ambitious mission of exploration launched from Japan at 0422 GMT Wednesday (11:22 p.m. EST Tuesday). An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with Hayabusa 2, starting a six-year journey to collect rocks from an asteroid and return them to Earth.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 today to deploy a covert U.S. national security payload. Follow the ascent in our live journal.