Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

Launching the Wideband Global SATCOM 9 satellite purchased by allied nations in collaboration with the U.S. military’s worldwide communications network, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket thundered away from Cape Canaveral at 8:18 p.m. EDT (0018 GMT).

Rolling toward a mid-May deployment of a clandestine spy satellite, United Launch Alliance’s triple-body Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved from its Cape Canaveral assembly building to pad 37B yesterday.

Student-built miniature satellites to demonstrate 3D printing to make repairs in space, a mission to study solar explosions hitting the Earth, a technology test for deorbiting smallsats and a precursor to a commemorative time capsule have won free launches into space aboard Atlas 5 rockets in United Launch Alliance’s first-ever cubesat challenge.