Live coverage: H-2A rocket delivers on 30th flight

More than three weeks after a faulty electrical component halted a countdown moments before liftoff, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Friday with two commercial communications satellites. Launch occurred at 2156 GMT (5:56 p.m. EDT).

A high-throughput communications satellite developed as a joint venture between Telesat and APT Satellite lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral, following a delay to wait for storms to clear the Florida spaceport.

NASA’s newest observatory in space has started its search for planets around other stars, officials said Friday, as astronomers zero in on worlds that are ripe for research by follow-up missions like the James Webb Space Telescope.