Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

Check out photos of Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher in the starting blocks at its tropical spaceport awaiting liftoff with two commercial television relay stations.

A Russian-made Soyuz booster rolled out to its launch pad in French Guiana on Friday, and hydraulic lifts rotated the launcher vertical in preparation for liftoff Tuesday with the first in a new series of French military spy satellites.

The European Space Agency has cinched an agreement with Arianespace for the October 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, which will dispatch the nearly $10 billion observatory on a bold mission that promises to rewrite astronomy textbooks.