Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Canada’s three new Radarsat Earth observation satellites were encapsulated inside the payload fairing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ahead of their liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from California at 10:30 a.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EST; 1830 GMT) today to deliver the sharp-eyed WorldView 4 satellite into space to collect best-in-the-industry, 31-centimeter-resolution commercial imagery for retail. Follow the mission in our live journal.

The maker of inflatable technology for a commercial space station will use a top-of-the-line Atlas 5 rocket with a stretched nose cone to hoist the first habitat into Earth orbit in 2020.