Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

A Soyuz rocket took off from French Guiana on Thursday with the SES 15 communications satellite, a craft heading for an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator to provide airborne wifi and aeronautical navigation services over the United States.

There were more successful space launches in 2014 than in any year since 1992, with Russia, the United States and China responsible for more than 80 percent of global launch activity.

An Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 rocket partially powered by modified motors from a Cold War-era nuclear missile lifted off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral with a small U.S. military satellite to help track other objects in space. The solid-fueled launcher took off at 2:04 a.m. EDT (0604 GMT) after a weather delay.