Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off on commercial flight

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).

A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off Friday with 31 satellites on the first flight for India’s workhorse rocket since an August mishap that left an Indian navigation satellite unusable after reaching orbit.

A U.S.-Russian-Italian space crew closed out a 199-day expedition on the International Space Station with a parachute-assisted landing Thursday on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Touchdown of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft occurred at 1343 GMT (9:43 a.m. EDT).