Q&A with Guido Levrini, ESA’s manager of the Copernicus space segment

A Long March 2D rocket boosted a Chinese military imaging satellite into a 300-mile-high orbit Sunday after liftoff from a remote launch base in the country’s northwestern frontier.

The next three-person crew will launch to the International Space Station sometime between July 23 and July 25 after a two-month delay triggered by the failure of an unmanned Progress resupply mission in April, Russian officials said Tuesday.

The launch from French Guiana of a solid-fueled Vega rocket with a European-built surveillance satellite for the United Arab Emirates has been postponed, Arianespace said, citing unfavorable high-altitude winds over the spaceport. Officials have not set a new target launch date.