Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

Europe’s nearly $8 billion Galileo navigation system, an analog to the U.S. GPS satellite network, is hitting a stride in production and launches, with another two spacecraft encapsulated Wednesday inside the fairing of a Soyuz rocket for liftoff next week.

These photos show the enclosure of the Boeing-built Amos 17 commercial communications satellite, owned by the Tel Aviv-based operator Spacecom Ltd., ahead of liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The rollout operation on Tuesday followed a day of evaluations using Boeing’s weight and center-of-gravity machine to determine the final measurements on the spacecraft. Launch is still targeting May 6 at 10:34 p.m. EDT (0234 UTC).