Live coverage: Maiden flight of Super Strypi launcher fails

Europe’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander arrived at Mars Wednesday, with the orbiter safely captured by Martian gravity after a critical engine firing. The lander’s fate is unknown after mission control lost contact just before touchdown.

A Soyuz rocket lifted off from South America late Thursday to haul up the next two satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation system, giving the network its ninth and 10th operational members. Launch occurred at 0208:10 GMT Friday (10:08:10 p.m. EDT Thursday).

The final flight of a Delta 2 rocket, a mainstay of the U.S. launch industry for nearly 30 years, began at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT; 1302 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA’s ICESat 2 Earth science satellite.