Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

The U.S. Air Force’s next GPS navigation satellite has been closed up inside the payload fairing of its Delta 4 launcher ahead a liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for July 25.

Wrapping up a six-month mission in orbit, three Chinese astronauts departed the Tiangong space station Saturday and landed in the remote Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 6:33 p.m. EDT (2233 UTC).

See images of a classified spy payload lifted on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.