Live coverage: Soyuz soars into space on its fourth launch attempt

SpaceX launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on Monday after a first stage sensor problem halted a countdown Sunday. Liftoff from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT), and the first stage landed at nearby Cape Canaveral around nine minutes later. The upper stage’s flight entered a pre-planned news blackout a few minutes after launch.

The Ariane 5 rocket’s fifth flight of the year launched at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT) with the Sky Muster and Arsat 2 communications satellites, designed to deliver broadband Internet to far-flung Australian citizens and broadcast television and networking services to Argentina and nearby countries.

A Chinese rocket carried the first communications satellite for Belarus into orbit Friday, recording a success in the first space launch this year.