Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Follow the unclassified portion of the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent to space from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-79 satellite payload. Launch is scheduled for Wednesday at 9:50 a.m. local time (12:50 p.m. EST; 1750 GMT).

The launch came as SpaceX is also preparing to launch a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station over the weekend. Liftoff of the Starlink 10-6 mission happened at 1:01 a.m. EDT (0501 UTC).

The next-to-last Delta 2 rocket is being stacked at its California launch site to take flight in January to put a civilian weather satellite into polar orbit.