Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Overcoming a dynamic and stormy weather pattern in Central Florida, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Israeli-owned Amos 17 commercial communications satellite Tuesday at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT).

The first Ariane 5 launch since a mission flew off course Jan. 25, deploying two communications satellites into an off-target orbit, is underway. Liftoff with the DSN 1/Superbird 8 and Hylas 4 communications satellites occurred on time at 2134 GMT (5:34 p.m. EDT).

Flying on its 40th mission, a Japanese H-2A rocket lifted off at 0408 GMT (12:08 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying Japan’s GOSAT 2 satellite to measure greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere and the KhalifaSat Earth observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates.