Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

Europe’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander arrived at Mars Wednesday, with the orbiter safely captured by Martian gravity after a critical engine firing. The lander’s fate is unknown after mission control lost contact just before touchdown.

China’s heaviest rocket has rolled to its launch pad for liftoff Thursday with the country’s first Mars landing mission, an ambitious attempt to place an orbiter around the Red Planet and a robotic rover on the Martian surface in early 2021.

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.