Live coverage: SpaceX delivers joint SES/EchoStar satellite to orbit

Two Chinese Yaogan military reconnaissance satellites launched this week, riding a Long March 2C booster into orbit on a mission that inaugurated the use of a new restartable upper stage to increase the rocket’s carrying capacity.

The 721,000-pound United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launches on-time at 2:36 p.m. EDT Wednesday into a deck of low-hanging clouds over Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the GPS 2F-9 navigation satellite.

Up to 24 launches are planned from Cape Canaveral in 2015, thanks to jam-packed manifests for SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to send up satellites for the U.S. military, NASA and commercial telecom operators.