Live coverage: Soyuz crew lands in Kazakhstan

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:47 p.m. PDT (4:47 p.m. EDT; 2047 GMT) Monday with a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency.

A joint U.S.-European satellite mission that measured rising sea levels for 11 years is ending due to the deteriorating condition of the spacecraft’s power system, officials said Friday.

Hardware problems that cropped up earlier this month on the Hubble Space Telescope, now approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch, are the latest signs the observatory is showing its age.