Live coverage: Japan’s H-2A rocket blasts off on first commercial flight

The European Space Agency’s Aeolus winds observatory is set for liftoff aboard a Vega rocket to kick off a three-year mission to measure global wind profiles from an orbit nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) above Earth.

United Launch Alliance crews at Cape Canaveral are finishing final preparations for an Atlas 5 rocket launch Saturday evening to dispatch three U.S. military satellites directly to an orbital perch more than 20,000 miles over the equator.

Japan’s regional satellite navigation network, conceived to improve GPS coverage over Japanese territory, received its fourth member Monday with an on-target H-2A rocket launch.