Watch the Falcon Heavy roar to life

The launch next year of a commercial communications craft jointly managed by London-based Inmarsat and the Greek satellite operator Hellas-Sat has been switched from SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket, officials said Thursday.

The center section of SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket has been test-fired at the launch company’s test facility in Central Texas, a sign of progress toward the behemoth booster’s long-delayed maiden mission scheduled some time in the final months of 2017.

Rocket Lab teams in New Zealand are preparing for the company’s first launch of the year Sunday (U.S. time) with a small experimental satellite for DARPA, the U.S. military’s research and development agency.