Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

The Atlas 5 rocket emerges from the Vertical Integration Facility for rollout to Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in preparation to launch GPS 2F-10 on Wednesday at 11:36 a.m. EDT.

NASA cited the complexity of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane and an uncertainty of when the proposed crew transport craft would be ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station as the primary reasons the agency picked Boeing and SpaceX for lucrative contracts to develop commercial space taxis.

The mission was the sixth launch of a Vega-C rocket to date. Liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana occurred at 2:21 p.m. local time (12:21 p.m. EST / 1721 UTC).