Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

Videos and photos help tell the story of Thursday’s launch of Europe’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, carrying high-tech thrusters and ultra-sensitive motion sensors to be used in a future gravitational wave detection mission, from French Guiana aboard a nearly 100-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 8:51 a.m. EST (1351 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral with the first in a new line of upgraded U.S. Air Force GPS navigation satellites. The launch was delayed five days due to technical and weather concerns.

The next pair of spacecraft to join Europe’s growing Galileo navigation system, a civilian-run analog to the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System, will be added to the tip of a Russian Soyuz booster overnight Monday after the rocket’s rollout earlier in the day in French Guiana.