Live coverage: Ariane 5 lifts off from French Guiana

Launch crews in French Guiana have mounted an innovative European space plane on top of a solid-fueled Vega launcher for a Feb. 11 suborbital test flight.

A European Ariane 5 rocket sat poised for liftoff on a tropical launch pad Thursday nestled in the edge of the Amazon rainforest of South America.

A technology demonstration microsatellite for Astro Digital rode a Rocket Lab Electron launcher into orbit Wednesday (U.S. time) from New Zealand, setting the stage for the debut of new systems on the next Electron flight as engineers move closer to retrieving and reusing the rocket’s first stage.