Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

A Moroccan military reconnaissance satellite secretly built in France lifted off Tuesday night aboard a European Vega rocket in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch occurred at 8:42 p.m. EST (0142 GMT).

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the spacecraft that will grab a piece of Asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth, shipped to Kennedy Space Center from the Lockheed Martin production facilities in Denver on May 20 aboard an Air Force C-17.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission resumed normal operations Friday after cold temperatures forced the spacecraft into space mode soon after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral.