Live coverage: Proton rocket blasts off with Astra 2G

A new European satellite carrying instruments to track changes in the world’s oceans, measure receding ice sheets and chart vegetation growth climbed into orbit Wednesday on top of a Russian Rockot launcher.

Ground crews returned to work Monday at the Guiana Space Center, a European-run spaceport on the northeastern shore of South America, after protests and a general strike across French Guiana interrupted launch operations for five weeks.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft departed the International Space Station on Wednesday at 9:19 a.m. EDT (1319 GMT), concluding the commercial spaceship’s eighth visit to the complex. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean occurred at 2:55 p.m. EDT (1855 GMT).