Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

More than three years after its launch was delayed by a corporate merger, a commercial Earth-imaging satellite has finally shipped to its California rocket base for liftoff aboard an Atlas 5 in September.

The GovSat 1 communications satellite for SES and the government of Luxembourg lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 4:25 p.m. EST (2125 GMT) Wednesday.

The SMAP observatory to map soil moisture distribution from 426 miles in space and its workhorse booster have been cleared for launch Thursday morning from California.