Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

A Russian Proton rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan on Friday on a critical launch aiming to complete deployment of a major multibillion-dollar global communications network for London-based Inmarsat. Liftoff occurred at 1144 GMT (7:44 a.m. EDT), but it will take more than 15 hours to put the satellite in the correct orbit.

Officials from the Norwegian Space Center are looking for another launch opportunity for a microsatellite designed to track ship traffic and study space weather after engineers determined it could not safely be attached to a Soyuz rocket set for liftoff Friday.

A Russian Soyuz rocket flew into space from the edge of the Amazon on Thursday, carrying a pair of European navigation satellites in the third launch in nine months for the multibillion-dollar Galileo program. Liftoff from French Guiana occurred on time at 1151:56 GMT (6:51:56 a.m. EST).