Live coverage: Delta 2 launches

Europe’s new Aeolus winds observatory blasted off at 2120 GMT (5:20 p.m. EDT) Wednesday aboard a solid-fueled Vega rocket from French Guiana, kicking off a three-year mission to chart the motion of Earth’s atmosphere.

SpaceX and NASA launched a planet-hunting satellite Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, two days after calling off a launch attempt to conduct additional guidance, navigation and control analyses. Liftoff occurred at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT), and the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted a launch license for SpaceX’s deployment of 10 Iridium communications satellites next week after reviewing the company’s inquiry into a Falcon 9 rocket explosion in September, an agency spokesperson said Friday.