Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter steers into orbit around Mars, lander’s fate TBD

An Ariane 5 rocket has blasted off from a tropical launch pad in French Guiana on nearly 3 million pounds of thrust, hoisting two U.S.-built communications satellites to orbit for commercial owners in Brazil and Japan.

SpaceX launch crews rolled out the company’s next Falcon 9 rocket to pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then lifted the two-stage launcher vertical for a hold-down engine firing Thursday in preparation for launch next week with a South Korean-owned commercial communications satellite.

Scientists from the United Arab Emirates have announced the Arab world’s first Mars probe will launch in July 2020 and collect global measurements of the Martian atmosphere.