Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

An Ariane 5 rocket took off from French Guiana Friday with the heaviest interplanetary science probe ever launched, kicking off a $1.7 billion European Space Agency mission on a decade-long quest to Jupiter’s icy moons in search of environments that could be habitable for life.

The third Ariane 5 flight of the year is on track for a late afternoon liftoff Thursday from French Guiana with two U.S.-built communications satellites to broadcast television channels to millions of DISH Network subscribers and improve banking services across the islands of Indonesia.

After a terminal countdown abort Sunday night, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with the next 60 Starlink internet satellites Thursday at 3:24 a.m. EST (0824 GMT). The Falcon 9 took off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, and its first stage booster successfully landed on SpaceX’s offshore drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.