Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

Two U.S.-built communications satellites rode the 100th European-made Ariane 5 rocket into orbit Tuesday from the jungle of French Guiana. Liftoff occurred at 2238 GMT (6:38 p.m. EDT) after a 45-minute delay caused by a range technical problem.

In one of its final preflight tests, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited at pad 39A in Florida for several seconds Thursday, ramping up to full throttle in an end-to-end checkout of the booster before liftoff next week on a space station resupply flight.

The launch of the next Landsat land imaging mission — a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey — has been delayed until around September 2021 after the effects of the coronavirus pandemic slowed work on the spacecraft in Arizona, NASA officials said.