Live coverage: Proton blasts off on return-to-flight mission

A Japanese Epsilon rocket launched Tuesday from the Uchinoura Space Center, a shoreline spaceport on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, with a space weather research probe to study phenomena inside the turbulent Van Allen radiation belts. Liftoff of the 85-foot-tall rocket occurred at 1100 GMT (6 a.m. EST).

The first communications satellite dedicated to support Japanese defense forces will launch Tuesday on top of an H-2A rocket on the way to a perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

A new multipurpose Russian communications satellite to be parked over the Atlantic Ocean is awaiting launch Monday aboard a Proton rocket.