The Brief

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) is gearing up to launch its first U.S. national security launch aboard its new Vulcan rocket on Tuesday night.

When is the rocket launch?

What we know:

Liftoff is set for 7:59 p.m., just before an 8:07 p.m. sunset, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, so expect a brilliant show — with the plume shifting from orange and pink in the low light to bright white as the rocket climbs.

This evening's ULA launch has an 80% chance weatherwise of a, "Go!"

The national security mission's goal is to place an experimental GPS satellite into geostationary orbit, more than 22,000 miles away.

Dig deeper:

Typically, GPS satellites orbit around half that distance while completing two orbits of Earth per day. This hig

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