Live coverage: Proton rocket blasts off with Astra 2G

A Soyuz rocket is standing on the launch pad in Kazakhstan used on Yuri Gagarin’s historic first human spaceflight in 1961, ready to send three people toward the International Space Station.

A Japanese H-2A rocket launched at 5:58 p.m. EDT (2158 GMT) Sunday from the Tanegashima Space Center with the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope orbiter, the UAE’s first probe to Mars.

The nearly $1.9 billion BepiColombo mission to Mercury jointly developed by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency lifted off Friday night from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Launch occurred at 9:45 p.m. EDT Friday (0145 GMT Saturday).