Live coverage: Ariane 5 launches for DirecTV

Turkey’s newest communications satellite soared into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday, and these spectacular images show the middle-of-the-night liftoff of the spacecraft’s Russian Proton rocket booster before it disappeared into low clouds.

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Monday evening at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, paving the way for launch of 60 more Starlink internet satellites Tuesday night.

The first in a planned multi-decade series of European land imaging satellites is fastened on top of a solid-fueled Vega launcher at a French Guiana space base for liftoff Monday, kicking off a mission to track everything from global crop growth to urban sprawl.