Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

A nearly 180-foot-tall (54.8-meter) Ariane 5 rocket rolled out of its integration hangar to the ELA-3 launch zone Wednesday at the Guiana Space Center in South America, moving into position for liftoff Thursday with two geostationary communications satellites.

A previously-flown Falcon 9 booster blasted off Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast with 10 new-generation communications satellites for Iridium. Launch occurred 8:27 p.m. EST (5:27 p.m. PST; 0127 GMT).

The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral was aborted three seconds before a planned liftoff at 3:28 a.m. EDT (0728 GMT). The rocket was set to loft a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency.