Live coverage: Orion lands in Pacific

For its first mission of the year, SpaceX launched the Airbus-built Turksat 5A communications satellite to cover Turkey, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa with data relay and television broadcast services. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:15 p.m. EST Thursday (0215 GMT Friday).

These images from United Launch Alliance and NASA photographers recorded the liftoff of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 12 with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.

Two new satellites for Eutelsat and Intelsat, two of the world’s largest telecom satellite operators, blasted off aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from South America’s Amazon jungle Thursday at 2034 GMT (4:34 p.m. EDT).