Live coverage: SpaceX launches its fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year

Advancing the future of weather forecasting in the U.S., a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT) today to deploy the GOES-R satellite, anext-generation geostationary observatory that promises unprecedented clarity and speed in tracking storms. Follow the ascent in our live journal.

The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between U.S. and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California’s Central Coast on Sunday.

NASA’s new planet-hunting TESS observatory completed its first post-launch thruster firing Saturday, setting up for a big boost Wednesday that will send the spacecraft toward the moon for a flyby next month, the next maneuvers in a two-month process to reach the mission’s final science orbit in mid-June.