Video: Liftoff of Delta 4 with WGS 7

A hefty communications satellite built by Boeing and launched by SpaceX Monday night from Cape Canaveral is on the way to a lofty perch more than 22,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean, where a startup named Kacific will use it to link remote populations seeking connectivity for health clinics, schools and other basic services.

After completing a dress rehearsal for launch day over the weekend, the four astronauts gearing up for liftoff Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket are in good spirits and spending time with their families in Florida before leaving the planet for a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Forecasters with the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict an 80% chance of acceptable weather for launch early Thursday.

Already shrouded in the Atlas 5 rocket’s Extra Extended Payload Fairing (XEPF) aluminum nose cone, the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-61 satellite was delivered to Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility on Tuesday, July 19 and lifted aboard the United Launch Alliance vehicle for flight.