Watch Live: United Launch Alliance Sending Up SBIRS Missile-Detecting Payload

UPDATE: Jan. 19, 2018, 11:37 a.m. ET - The United Launch Alliance scheduled launch for Thursday evening was canceled due to "A ground issue associated with the booster liquid oxygen system," said a release from ULA. The launch of the SBIRS missile detecting payload was rescheduled for Friday night at 7:48 p.m. ET.

UPDATE: 7:22 p.m. ET - United Launch Alliance tweeted Thursday night less than an hour before the launch window was scheduled to open that the launch of the SBIRS GEO 4 payload was scrubbed for the day.

Original story:

United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch a rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Thursday evening for the United States Air Force. The launch window was scheduled to open at 7:52 p.m. ET and last 40 minutes for the launch of the Space Based Infrared System GEO Flight 4 known as SBIRS.

By 2:30 p.m. ET Thursday the weather forecast showed a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for the launch of the payload on one of the company's Atlas V rocket, ULA tweeted. Coverage of the launch is expected to start at 7:32 p.m. ET online with a live feed on the ULA YouTube channel.

Watch United Launch Alliance launch a missile defense payload for the Air Force:

If the launch is successful it will be the 125th launch for the company since it was founded in 2006 and it will mark the 75th launch of the Atlas V rocket since its inaugural launch in 2002, according to ULA.

The SBIRS payload is a system that provides data for missile defense, missile warnings, battlespace awareness and technical intelligence, according to Lockheed Martin. ULA tweeted photos Wednesday night of the rocket and the payload verticle on the launch pad prior to the scheduled launch.

The rocket provides more than 860,000 pounds of thrust to deliver its payload to orbit and can deliver payloads either to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit or Low Earth Orbit-Reference, according to ULA. There were no details available about which orbit the SBIRS payload would hopefully be delivered to on Thursday evening.