Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

The first launch of an Italian-made Vega rocket since an in-flight failure nearly one year ago has been postponed to no earlier than Monday night due to unfavorable upper level winds over the Vega launch base in Kourou, French Guiana.

Soaring into the night sky over a guarded Russian military base, a 1.2-ton European satellite rocketed into orbit Tuesday to regularly measure how the world’s oceans and ice sheets respond to climate change and drive global weather patterns.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft barreled toward a Fourth of July rendezvous with Jupiter after a 1.7-billion-mile, five-year trip from planet Earth. The research probe’s main engine ignited for 35 minutes to maneuver Juno into orbit, and engineers received confirmation of the burn’s conclusion on time at 11:53 p.m. EDT Monday (0353 GMT Tuesday).