Photos: Final ULA mission of the year blasts off successfully

Three Russian Gonets communications satellites launched late Wednesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, riding a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage into orbit on the second successful Soyuz mission in less than 24 hours.

More than three years after its launch was delayed by a corporate merger, a commercial Earth-imaging satellite has finally shipped to its California rocket base for liftoff aboard an Atlas 5 in September.

The launch from French Guiana of a solid-fueled Vega rocket with a European-built surveillance satellite for the United Arab Emirates has been postponed, Arianespace said, citing unfavorable high-altitude winds over the spaceport. Officials have not set a new target launch date.