Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

A Russian rocket released two Galileo navigation satellites nearly 15,000 miles above Earth early Friday, adding to a growing fleet giving Europe an independent space-based positioning system tracking automobiles, airplanes and cell phone-carrying people around the world.

This is the launch highlights reel from United Launch Alliance of the Delta 4 rocket carrying the seventh satellite for the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM constellation.

A compact exoplanet observatory built in Europe to help astronomers determine the sizes of distant worlds around other stars is scheduled for launch Wednesday from French Guiana aboard a Soyuz rocket.