Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Astronauts on the International Space Station are eager to begin unpacking 2.6 tons of supplies and experiments — including a package of belated Christmas gifts — after delivery aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule Monday.

United Launch Alliance crews at Cape Canaveral are finishing final preparations for an Atlas 5 rocket launch Saturday evening to dispatch three U.S. military satellites directly to an orbital perch more than 20,000 miles over the equator.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) and the Space Operations Command (SpOC) shifted the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 07 spacecraft to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket due to delays in Vulcan’s certification.