Live coverage: Europe’s next environmental sentinel lifts off

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off at 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT).to deploy the Navy’s fourth MUOS satellite that will expand coverage to encompass the globe with mobile communications.

The countdown for a planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida automatically aborted in the last second before liftoff Sunday after an on-board computer detected unexpected data during an engine power check.

Armed with $460 million in fresh financing to grow its broadband communications capacity, O3b Networks has selected Thales Alenia Space to build eight new satellites and Arianespace to launch at least four of them aboard a Soyuz rocket in 2018.