Live coverage: H-2A rocket blasts off with latest Japanese weather satellite

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT) Tuesday on the company’s first mission dedicated to the newly-established U.S. Space Force. The Falcon 9 carried a GPS navigation satellite into orbit.

Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday. 

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.