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

A European Ariane 5 rocket fired into a clear blue sky over French Guiana on Wednesday, delivering to space a powerhouse satellite for Australia’s government-backed $1.2 billion nationwide universal broadband network and Argentina’s second communications satellite.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the JCSAT 16 communications satellite into orbit 32 minutes later.

A veteran cosmonaut, a former Japanese 767 airline pilot and a NASA astronaut with a Ph.D. in cancer biology are making final preparations for launch July 6 on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. It will be the first flight in an upgraded Soyuz ferry craft with improved, more redundant navigation, communications and computer equipment.