Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

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.

Scientists examining imagery from Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft have logged numerous changes to the face of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from collapsing cliffs to a growing crack through the comet’s neck that could foretell the eventual unraveling of the city-sized icy world.

Rocket Lab launched a radar imaging satellite Tuesday for the Japanese company Synspective. The small Earth observation payload lifted off from New Zealand at 5:09 a.m. EST (1009 GMT) aboard an Electron rocket. Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage on this mission.