Video: Delta 4 launches before dawn from California

Two SpaceX rockets are standing on launch pads several miles apart on Florida’s Space Coast awaiting launch opportunities Thursday and Friday, once an oft-delayed Delta 4-Heavy rocket from rival United Launch Alliance is able to blast off from Cape Canaveral with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite.

SpaceX rolled out a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday night to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for liftoff with the next 60 Starlink internet satellites, but officials have pushed back the launch until Wednesday.

Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California retracted a mobile gantry away from the Delta 2 rocket Monday afternoon, revealing the 128-foot-tall (39-meter) booster on its launch pad awaiting liftoff with a new polar-orbiting weather observatory.