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

Ground crews towed a towering Ariane 5 rocket to its launch pad in French Guiana on Wednesday for final flight preparations before Thursday’s launch with spacecraft for two of the world’s top commercial satellite operators.

Rising atop a column of rocket exhaust lighting up the Kazakh steppe, a Russian Proton booster took off Thursday with a commercial communications satellite for AsiaSat.

Riding on its side aboard a rail car, a Proton rocket trekked to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a Eutelsat television broadcast satellite ready for liftoff Friday.