India’s first dedicated astronomical observatory lifted off at 0430 GMT (12:30 a.m. EDT) Monday aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, riding into a 400-mile-high orbit to begin a five-year mission studying the births and deaths of stars.

A Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:55 a.m. EST (0655 GMT) Sunday with the Arktika-M 1 spacecraft, the first in a new line of Russian satellites designed to provide weather observations over the Arctic.

Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket returned to flight Oct. 17 with a successful evening launch from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a beacon visible for hundreds of miles along the U.S. East Coast as the 13-story rocket set course for a cargo delivery to the International Space Station.