Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with the Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane lifts off at 11:05 a.m. EDT from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Boeing and SpaceX are readying for launch abort tests in the coming weeks to validate the crew escape systems for the new human-rated Starliner and Crew Dragon spaceships, now scheduled to begin ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station in the first half of next year.

Europe’s solid-fueled Vega booster vaulted away from a launch pad in the South American jungle late Thursday and deftly delivered five sharp-eyed Earth observation satellites into two different orbits for the Peruvian government and a Google-owned mapping company.