Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

Boosted by two solid-fueled motors and a hydrogen-burning main engine, a European Ariane 5 rocket took off Thursday from French Guiana with a Japanese military communications payload and a U.S.-built, British-owned broadband satellite, returning to service after a January mission placed two spacecraft in the wrong orbit.

The U.S. Air Force fired a new rail-launched rocket into space from Hawaii at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (0345 GMT Wednesday), but the Super Strypi vehicle failed about a minute after liftoff with 13 satellites on-board.

Rocket Lab’s second launch in a little more than a week blasted off from New Zealand at 5:14 a.m. EDT (0914 UTC) Friday with two commercial Earth observation satellites for BlackSky. The Electron rocket’s first stage booster successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean for recovery.