Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:17 p.m. EST (9:17 a.m. PST; 1717 GMT) Saturday with an oceanography satellite jointly developed by U.S. and European space and weather agencies. The rocket’s first stage booster returned to a bullseye landing back at Vandenberg.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT) today to boost Orbital ATK’s commercially-operated Cygnus cargo ship toward a Saturday rendezvous with the International Space Station. Follow the ascent in our live journal.

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.