Ariane 5 Mission Status Center

Alain Charmeau took charge of Airbus Safran Launchers when it formed in 2015 from the merger of Airbus and Safran’s rocket divisions, and his first major task is to spearhead development of Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket set for a debut launch in 2020.

Two communications satellites rode an Ariane 5 rocket into space Saturday — one to beam down ultra-sharp television programming into millions of American homes and another craft to give Indian citizens expanded access to information technology.

A reconnaissance satellite built in secrecy in France for the Moroccan government launched Tuesday on top of a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in South America.