Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

A solid-fueled Vega launcher fired through a low cloud deck and sped into orbit from the South American jungle early Thursday with a pioneering European spacecraft that marks a key step in a century-long quest to detect elusive gravitational waves predicted to permeate the cosmos.

A commercial mission developed by the Japanese company Astroscale rocketed into space on a Russian Soyuz launcher Monday with 37 other payloads, ready to kick off an orbital “dance” with two small spacecraft demonstrating how satellite sweepers might one day drag junk out of orbit.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule arrived at the International Space Station early Sunday with 3.5 tons of supplies and experiments, including an inflatable room to test out technologies for future use on deep space missions. British astronaut Tim Peake captured Dragon with the robotic arm at 7:23 a.m. EDT (1123 GMT).