Live coverage: Proton soars into space with Inmarsat satellite

Engineers from SpaceX, Boeing and Inmarsat spent the last few weeks preparing a Falcon 9 rocket and the Inmarsat 5 F4 communications satellite for liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers plan to test small modifications to a payload shroud on a European Ariane 5 rocket launch Friday from French Guiana, gathering data on changes introduced to meet stringent criteria for the launch of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope in late 2021.

A Falcon 9 rocket powered by a reused first stage booster rolled out Tuesday to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a day before its scheduled liftoff with an Airbus-built communications satellite designed for television broadcasts over the Americas.