Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

Two commercial communications satellites heading for orbits more than 22,000 miles above Earth are scheduled for launch from a jungle launch facility in French Guiana at sunset Tuesday on top of an Ariane 5 rocket.

Decisions on the future of a joint robotic mission between NASA and the European Space Agency to demonstrate the ability to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth have been put off until later this year after European governments declined to fully fund their part of the project in December.

An Ariane 5 rocket launched Tuesday with the Arabsat 6B and GSAT 15 communications satellites to broadcast television across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia and link India with telecom and navigation services. Liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, occurred at 2134 GMT (4:34 p.m. EST).