Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

Heading to space next week to replace a 12-year-old satellite in the Global Positioning System navigation network, a modernized spacecraft was placed atop its Atlas 5 launcher Wednesday.

Fans of classical mythology and the fictional Star Trek universe can vote for two new candidates as the name of United Launch Alliance’s next generation rocket, with Vulcan and Zeus joining three other options in an online poll revealed earlier this week.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket will deliver the U.S. Air Force’s second GPS 3-series navigation satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit nearly two hours after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.