Launches for two of the commercial transport outfits contracted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to send payloads in orbit or to the International Space Station have been rescheduled later this month -- after a problem with a radar tracking system held them up for about two weeks.

Carriers United Launch Alliance and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or, SpaceX, have rescheduled their next rocket missions from Cape Canaveral for April 10 and April 14 respectively.

Flight officials delayed the lift-offs after the radar responsible for keeping tabs on the individual missions was knocked offline after a system component reportedly short-circuited and overheated March 24.

Without the radar, the Air Force's Eastern Range, which primarily supports missile and rocket launches from the two major launch heads located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was unable to provide the monitoring necessary the ULA Atlas 5 and SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, then set for March 25 and March 30.

When the Atlas 5 blasts off April 10, it will be carrying a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the United States government agency that owns and operates imaging and eavesdropping spy satellites.

Liftoff of the ULA rocket from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad is set for a launch window opening at 1:45 p.m. EDT and extending 41 minutes.

The ULA mission from Cape Canaveral will be preceded by an Atlas 5 launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base with a military DMSP F19 weather satellite.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for liftoff April 14 from the nearby Complex 40 pad at the Cape will carry an automated Dragon cargo transport ship heading to the ISS, where it will deliver 2.4 tons of equipment.

The Falcon 9 launch on April 14 is scheduled for 4:58 p.m. EDT, while the Dragon is expected to arrive at the space station April 16.