Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

A 180-foot-tall Ariane 5 rocket climbed into space from French Guiana on Thursday evening, but the mission ran into problems a few minutes later.

SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off Thursday with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. The world’s most powerful operational launcher lifted off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT), and its three first stage boosters landed less than 10 minutes later — two back at Cape Canaveral and one on a drone ship at sea.

A logistics-delivery vessel for the International Space Station, launched and operated privately by commercial companies on behalf of NASA, is scheduled to arrive at the lab complex Saturday at 6:05 a.m. EDT (1005 GMT).