Live coverage: Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, veteran of a 168-day stay in space in 2017-18, will join two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft April 9 for a flight back to the International Space Station in a deal brokered through Houston-based Axiom Space, NASA and the Russian space agency announced Tuesday.

The first orbital test flight of Virgin Orbit’s privately-developed air-launched rocket is scheduled as soon as Sunday off the coast of Southern California, the company said Wednesday.

Follow the unclassified portion of the Delta 4 rocket’s ascent to space from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 launch pad with the U.S. Air Force’s two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, satellites.