Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off on commercial flight

Confident in technical and procedural fixes implemented since a launch in August left two Galileo satellites in the wrong orbit, officials with Europe’s navigation program say Friday’s liftoff of two identical craft on a Soyuz rocket will try to fill the same slots in the fleet as targeted by last year’s failed mission.

A day before blastoff with two Intelsat communications satellites, an Ariane 5 rocket rolled into position on its launch pad in French Guiana on Tuesday behind a 540-horsepower Titan truck, and these close-up snapshots show technicians preparing for the journey.

A German-built satellite designed to relay data between other orbiting spacecraft and ground stations using laser beams is set for launch in tandem with an Intelsat communications craft Tuesday from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.