Live coverage: 400th Proton rocket takes off with Russian satellite

Arianespace launched a solid-fueled Vega rocket from French Guiana at 9:51 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0151 GMT Thursday) after delays of more than five months caused by the coronavirus pandemic and unfavorable upper level winds. The Italian-built launcher will deploy 53 small satellites into orbit.

Two days after blasting off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SpaceX’s refurbished Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Monday with nearly 6,000 pounds of experiments and equipment. Grapple of Dragon by the station’s robot arm occurred at 9:52 a.m. EDT (1352 GMT).

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:09 p.m. PDT (4:09 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on a mission hauling 51 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.