Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter steers into orbit around Mars, lander’s fate TBD

Inside a month until its next chance to swing into orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has weathered unexpectedly “severe” conditions after missing an arrival opportunity in 2010, according to the mission’s project scientist.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office at 5:32 p.m. EST (2232 GMT) Friday. The launcher debuted new Northrop Grumman-built solid rocket boosters.

The first of up to four Vega rocket launches planned this year lifted off Thursday night from French Guiana carrying the Italian PRISMA hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellite.
The solid-fueled launcher blasted off from the Guiana Space Center at 0150:35 GMT (9:50:35 p.m. EDT).