Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

Heading to space next week to replace a 12-year-old satellite in the Global Positioning System navigation network, a modernized spacecraft was placed atop its Atlas 5 launcher Wednesday.

AsiaSat’s most powerful communications satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral in California to reach developing markets in Myanmar, Indonesia and other parts of the Asia-Pacific, rode a Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage Thursday into orbit ranging more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

A European Ariane 5 rocket fired into a clear blue sky over French Guiana on Wednesday, delivering to space a powerhouse satellite for Australia’s government-backed $1.2 billion nationwide universal broadband network and Argentina’s second communications satellite.