Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

Fresh off the successful launch and initial checkout of two of its spacecraft earlier this month, Israel’s top satellite manufacturer sees a robust global market for new low-altitude reconnaissance payloads, but little international demand for its communications satellites.

Four satellites fastened to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket will grow Europe’s space-based Galileo navigation network Thursday morning with a launch from the South American jungle.

The first 34 satellites manufactured on a new commercial spacecraft assembly line just outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are scheduled for liftoff on a Soyuz rocket Thursday halfway around the world in Kazakhstan, kicking off a sequence of up to 20 launches from three countries to deploy nearly 650 satellites for OneWeb’s global Internet network.