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

An ambitious mission of exploration launched from Japan at 0422 GMT Wednesday (11:22 p.m. EST Tuesday). An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with Hayabusa 2, starting a six-year journey to collect rocks from an asteroid and return them to Earth.

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is scheduled to fire into orbit late Tuesday, U.S. time, with 104 satellites on-board, setting a record for the largest flock of spacecraft ever launched on a single rocket.

The last planned batch of high-resolution SkySat commercial Earth-viewing reconnaissance satellites owned by Planet will accompany 58 Starlink broadband relay stations on a climb into orbit Tuesday from Cape Canaveral on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, adding to the world’s two largest commercial satellite fleets.