Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket test-fired in Florida

Arianespace’s launch team in French Guiana rolled an Ariane 5 booster to its launch pad Tuesday and readied the rocket for liftoff Wednesday with an Inmarsat satellite to connect airline passengers over Europe and an Indian communications craft.

A hefty European-built satellite destined to broadcast high-definition television to the Middle East and a U.S.-made relay station programmed to serve Latin America and North Atlantic air routes soared into space Thursday aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.

Arianespace has announced OneWeb, the broadband Internet provider seeking to deploy more than 600 satellites into low Earth orbit, as the launch customer for the inaugural flight of the new Ariane 6 rocket in 2020.