Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

After replacing a faulty inertial measurement system blamed for a scrubbed launch attempt Sunday, a Soyuz rocket headed to space from French Guiana today with five satellites, including the next spacecraft for Europe’s multibillion-dollar Earth observing network and a French experiment to probe the validity of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

A Japanese H-2A rocket launched the fourth satellite for the country’s regional navigation network Monday. Liftoff from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan occurred at 2201:37 GMT (6:01:37 p.m. EDT).

NASA is close to deciding whether to spend an extra $150 million to send the InSight lander to Mars in 2018 or cancel the mission after an instrument problem made the spacecraft miss a launch opportunity this year, with a verdict on the project’s future expected within weeks, officials said.