Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample retrieval mission atop an Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from launch complex 41, as seen by our camera at the NASA Kennedy Space Center press site.

United Launch Alliance crews at Cape Canaveral have topped off an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff Monday with the U.S. military’s next infrared sentinel to join a satellite fleet designed detect missile launches around the world.

Within days, NASA is expected to select a winner from a roster of nine eligible companies to try and become the first commercial entity to accomplish a soft landing on the moon with a robotic spacecraft. The privately-developed probe would be the vanguard in a series of unpiloted missions intended to deliver science instruments to the lunar surface and prepare for a human expedition as soon as 2024.