Live coverage: Soyuz rocket lifts off with new Galileo satellites

A European environmental satellite launched Tuesday from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome to begin a mission of at least seven years measuring the height, color and temperature of the world’s oceans. The Sentinel 3A spacecraft lifted off aboard a Rockot booster at 1757 GMT (12:57 p.m. EST).

Watch a time lapse video chronicling several days of activity to ready the European Space Agency’s sleek IXV re-entry demonstrator for flight.

The U.S. Air Force’s next GPS navigation satellite has been closed up inside the payload fairing of its Delta 4 launcher ahead a liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for July 25.