Live coverage: Orion lands in Pacific

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.

Members of the news media — reporters and photographers — witnessed the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off from the ITL Causeway on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, about 1.7 miles from the pad.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) Thursday from Cape Canaveral with NOAA’s GOES-S weather satellite, the second in a series of upgraded observatories destined to cover the western United States and the Pacific Ocean.