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

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.

The most powerful version of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) today on a three-hour flight to deploy a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite into orbit. Follow the mission in our live journal.

A Falcon 9 rocket is being readied for a space station resupply mission at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A . The rocket is scheduled to launch at 10:01 a.m. EST (1501 GMT) on Saturday, weather permitting. Watch live coverage.