Live coverage: Ariane 5 rocket deploys satellites for Australia, India

A communications payload owned by the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES will ride the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2015, SES officials said Friday.

Japanese space agency officials said Tuesday they found a “large number” of pitch black rock and dust particles after opening a capsule returned to Earth earlier this month by the Hayabusa 2 mission, giving eager scientists their first significant specimens ever brought back from an asteroid.

The planned liftoff Thursday of an Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle with a geostationary Earth-imaging satellite has been postponed due to technical reasons, India’s space agency announced.