Live coverage: Atlas 5 blasts off from California

An Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 2143 GMT (5:43 p.m. EDT) Thursday from French Guiana with a pair of commercial TV broadcasting satellites for AT&T and Eutelsat.

A Russian Soyuz rocket flew into space from the edge of the Amazon on Thursday, carrying a pair of European navigation satellites in the third launch in nine months for the multibillion-dollar Galileo program. Liftoff from French Guiana occurred on time at 1151:56 GMT (6:51:56 a.m. EST).

Critical operations were completed this morning by United Launch Alliance at Cape Canaveral to prepare two rockets for upcoming flights into space.