Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

India launched the 40th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle mission Friday carrying an Earth observation satellite and 30 secondary payloads from 15 nations. Liftoff occurred at 0359 GMT Friday (11:59 p.m. EDT Thursday).

Humankind’s largest emissary to Mars in a generation is set for blastoff Monday, when Europe and Russia will dispatch a mission to unravel the mystery of Martian methane.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Wednesday carrying NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory, the world’s most distant weather satellite heading for a point a million miles from Earth. Launch from Cape Canaveral occurred at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT).