Photos: America’s 100th EELV blasts off

Overcoming a dynamic and stormy weather pattern in Central Florida, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Israeli-owned Amos 17 commercial communications satellite Tuesday at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT).

A compact exoplanet observatory built in Europe to help astronomers determine the sizes of distant worlds around other stars is scheduled for launch Wednesday from French Guiana aboard a Soyuz rocket.

The second orbital test flight of India’s GSLV Mk.3 launcher took off Wednesday, hoisting a high-throughput communications satellite into orbit to connect the county’s remote population and clearing the way for a robotic lunar lander to use the rocket in January.