Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

A pair of Earth-imaging satellites for the Italian military and a French-Israeli environmental monitoring project lifted off from French Guiana aboard a European Vega rocket at 0158:33 GMT Wednesday (9:58:33 p.m. EDT Tuesday).

Watch NASA’s news conference to preview three spacewalks outside the International Space Station planned for late March and early April to prepare for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft and upgrade station hardware.

Following delivery to the launch pad, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket stands poised for the NROL-61 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral on Thursday morning.