Video: Delta 4 lifts off

Arianespace and CNES, the French space agency, have released sensational slow-motion video from shielded engineering cameras at the Ariane 5 rocket’s launch pad in French Guiana, showing the launcher’s fiery evening takeoff Feb. 5 with communications satellites for Saudi Arabia and India.

Eagle? Freedom? GalaxyOne? United Launch Alliance wants public input in the naming of a next-generation launcher designed to replace the historic Atlas and Delta rocket lines in the 2020s.

With its liftoff just 18 days away to deploy a new Global Positioning System satellite, stacking of the next United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket began Monday at the vertical assembly building outside Complex 41.