Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

The launch of the next Landsat land imaging mission — a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey — has been delayed until around September 2021 after the effects of the coronavirus pandemic slowed work on the spacecraft in Arizona, NASA officials said.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, standing 206 feet tall and and weighing 720,000 pounds, unleashes 1.1 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted boosters at 12:52 a.m. EDT (0452 today to launch the GSSAP No. 3 and No. 4 satellites for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program from Cape Canaveral.

Rocket Lab launched a radar imaging satellite Tuesday for the Japanese company Synspective. The small Earth observation payload lifted off from New Zealand at 5:09 a.m. EST (1009 GMT) aboard an Electron rocket. Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage on this mission.