Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

An Ariane 5 rocket fired into space from a tropical spaceport in French Guiana on Wednesday, successfully delivering two television broadcast satellites into high-altitude orbits for DirecTV and Sky Mexico.

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.

After three frustrating days of weather delays, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT) today to send Orbital ATK’s commercial Cygnus cargo freighter to the International Space Station.