Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket soars into space from California

Expect fewer missions to study planet Earth in NASA’s future, agency officials told an advisory group last week. A blueprint of the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget would cancel four Earth science missions already in the agency’s portfolio and slash research funding geared toward future projects.

The launch has been shrouded in secrecy and is being referred as the “TD7 mission” by SpaceX. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A happened Sunday, Nov. 17, at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 UTC).

Two Earth-imaging satellites and an experimental solar sail payload rocketed into orbit Thursday aboard a Chinese Long March 4B launcher, the first flight for China’s Long March 4 rocket family since an upper stage failure in May.